well, if you do rip the drive out, don't erase it. I have a tool or 2
here where I can interface that with my big box and go in and crack
your password for you (john the ripper is handy). others my have
similar tools or ideas.

also, if you take the drive out and mount it on another linux box as a
secondary drive, you can access its filesyste, edit /etc/shadow and
make the root password blank. that will give you root access my
hitting enter at the password prompt. then you can change it to your
preferred password at any time :)


On 8/23/08, Alan Dayley <alandd@consultpros.com> wrote:
> I have an old laptop that I installed Linux on some time ago and then
>  never used.  I have a use for it now and it is working.  However, I
>  don't remember the root password.  No big deal, just boot to runlevel
>  1, right?  Well, this system still asks for the root password before
>  you can get to the runlevel 1 prompt!  Highly secure, I suppose but
>  inconvenient.
>
>  So, this laptop does NOT have an optical drive NOR will it boot from
>  USB. More inconvenience. Unless there is some what to get around the
>  password prompt, I'll be stuck removing the hard drive to do a
>  re-install, as I did to get Linux on the computer in the first place.
>
>  Any ideas how to get past this without riping the hard drive out?
>
>  Alan
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