help with new OS

[der.hans]

Am 22. Mar, 2002 schwätzte Jack Inyart so:

> I have two machines with Linux running and I am a complete newbie to
> Lunix.  Really a newbie, assume nothing about any prior knowledge.  I need
> only one machine to learn more about Linux.  One is running just fine, the
> other is another story. I cannot login.  I do not know the password for
> this machine and need to log in to the machine since I want to install a
> different OS.  Is there a way to get to the area where I can login and
> start to install the new OS?  Thanks.  Jack

Generally you don't install one OS from inside another.

Boot from the CD for the other OS and install it. If you're just wiping out
the Linux install you have you have no worries about the Linux install.

If you want to keep the Linux install don't wipe out the partitions it's
using when install the other OS.

To get into the Linux install to use it reboot and hold down the shift
button until you get the 'boot:' prompt from lilo. Hit <tab> twice. That
will give you a list of boot images lilo knows about. Let's say the first is
called 'Linux'. At the 'boot:' prompt enter 'Linux init=/bin/sh' and hit
<enter>. Linux should boot and give you a root shell, generally designated
by a '#' prompt.

At the root prompt enter 'mount -o remount,rw /', then 'passwd'. The last
will prompt you for a new root password. After entering a new root passwd
enter 'mount -o remount,ro /', then 'exec /sbin/init'. At that point Linux
should finish booting and you'll be able to login as root.

As root you can add user accounts via 'useradd -m <username>' replacing
'<username>' with whatever username you want. Use lower-case alpha-numeric
characters only and no spaces.

As root you can assign a password to the new account with 'passwd
<username>'.

Once you have a user account, you can logout and login as that user. Note
you can also create the user between the two mount commands. Also note that
if you just need to fix the password for an already existing user, then just
use 'passwd <username>' as root.

After logging in as a normal user if you need to do something as root you
can enter 'su' and root's password when you're prompted to get another root
shell.

root is the adminstrative account and has rights/permissions to do anything
on the system. Use it sparingly. It has the ability to let the magic smoke
out of the box :).

User accounts don't have special privileges, so generally can't harm the
overall system.

ciao,

der.hans
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