root password

General Discussion
1

Please help I love my little lenovo idea pad ,but gone wrong will not work as has linux and says i need root password ,what is that,please help.I phoned linux ,but they said would charge me 1.50 plus v a t a minute!

2

Ok, start a ‘terminal session’, then from the command line do;

sudo passwd root
(enter 'your' password)
(enter the new 'root' password you'd like, twice ..)

Now you know what the root password is … :slight_smile:

3

Hello ,Thankyou so much for your input.my commputer is only showing black page with white writing on and at bottom of page asking for root password ,i cannot do anything else with it .How do i do a terminal session,look forward to your reply ,susie

4

You don’t say which Linux distribution you are using, so being specific may be awkward but I’ll give you the Ubuntu/Mint instructions, your distro should be similar…

  1. Boot the PC, and keep your finger on the “Shift” key (may be “Esc” on yours) until you are presented with the GRUB bootloader screen.

  2. Select the “Recovery Mode” option

  3. If you are offered a coloured screen with some options, select cancel… you should now be at a command line, asking for a login name

  4. Enter “your” username, hit enter, enter “your” password, hit enter… you should now be at a $ prompt

  5. enter:

sudo passwd root

it will prompt you for a password, enter “your” password
it should now ask for the new “root” password… enter what you want it to be.
it will now ask you to re-enter the password for verification so enter it again.
it should tell you the “root” password has been changed.

5

It doesn’t sound like X is running … if you move your mouse, does anything (i.e. a pointer) move on the screen??

6

sorry that does not work,what i can see is -fsck failed.please repair manually and reboot. the root file system is cu.rrantly mounted read only. to remove it read write do bash mount n o remount ,rw attention only control d will reboot the system in this maintance mode.shut down or reboot will not work give root pass word.it also says when i turn it on desktop sp2 if that is of any help

7

Ok, in which case you’re going to need a “rescue CD” … or boot off an Ubuntu install CD and run the “Rescue” option …

8

I have not got a c d player in my idea pad,as you may have gathered i do not know alot about computers

9

Ok, essentially what has happened is that either your machine has crashed, or more likely it’s been powered down or run out of battery, and not closed down “cleanly”. (i.e. as it might if you ‘tell’ it to close itself down)

As a result, it needs to fix an error it’s found on it’s disk , but because that fix “might” lead to some data loss, it’s asking you to perform the process manually.

To do this you will need to enter the root (or administrator) password. Unfortunately, as the machine has not yet booted, there is no way to get in and change the password, so the only fallback is to boot off something else. If you don’t have a CD player, you’re going to need a copy of Linux on a USB stick, doesn’t really matter which one, although the Ubuntu Netbook Remix version (available for download from ubuntu.com) is probably as good as any other.

(As with Windows and any other Operating System, it’s always advisable to know your Administrator password or find out what it is ‘before’ your system fails, as it’s often required when you try to recover failed systems)

10

You know, MP, I still use the old root password we always used to use on my desktop/laptops :slight_smile:
Good memories…

11

Have you got the DVD that came with the Acer Aspire One ZG5? … if not your options are:

  1. Download Linpus Lite from a torrent or try to find it on the web somewhere (not going to be easy but I may be able to help you find it)
  2. Get in touch with Acer and ask them for a copy of the original DVD
  3. Download Another “flavor” of Linux such as Ubuntu Netbook remix/edition or a full Linux desktop edition such as Mint/Ubuntu

1 and 2, will restore your Acer to “Factory Settings”… but all saved data lost.

With 3 you will be able to build a LiveUSB (using a Windows PC) for an attempt at fixing your Linpus Lite installation, or a complete installation of a different Linux Distribution.

Let us know which route you want to go down and we’ll supply instructions.

Personally I’d move to something better than Linpus Lite such as Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10

12

You know, MP, I still use the old root password we always used to use on my desktop/laptops

So I guess you’re not looking for a job in the security sector then? :wink:

If you have a password that only accessible locally, sometimes it’s better not to forget it that worry about changing it every six months … something the so-called security experts often overlook! :slight_smile:

You’d be amazed how many of my systems still have a really “bad” password :wink: