password is lost-can't get in

Remember, though, this will cause the loss of all files stored on the unit.

If you don't care about what you've saved and are happy to reset to factory defaults then just press F9 when the unit starts up and restore to factory default when you get that menu.

If you've got stuff to keep then at that same F9 menu you can get into a shell and change the password. It's not difficult to do but it requires a number of steps that all have to be done correctly. I've not got my EeePC infront of me now so I can't give you the exact steps to do. (I also suspect that this is in the wiki somewhere but I haven't got time to search for it)

Unless you've got something critical that you cannot afford to lose then just reset to factory default. If you really need to reset the password without resetting to factory default then post here again and I'll work out the exact steps needed - but it will probably be the weekend before I have time.

Tim.

msdg137 wrote:

Reseting to factory defaults didn't reset the password when i tried. I bought a used eee and the previous owner cant recall the password.

That doesn't make sense.

The factory defaults have you enter a username and password the first time you boot up the Eee.

You can always boot into rescue mode and then type

passwd root
reboot

Resetting the machine with F9 is unnecessary and arguably a bad idea (if it's gonna destroy all of the files).  There's a somewhat involved but nevertheless conventional method that everyone should know, just in case their Eee gets hosed and they don't want to wipe out everything they've got on it just to make it usable again.

My Eee locked up on me because somehow, a bunch of files got copied into the /media mount point, and suddenly the machine wouldn't finish booting.  It would get to the point where it started X11, then reboot, again and again and again.  I thought the memory had gone bad (that's what happened on a desktop machine I had, when I static-fried the DIMM).  Luckily, it turned out just to be that Xandros has some sort of weird can't-deal-with-it mode when files are sitting in /media. . . .  But anyway:

Create a bootable USB stick on another machine.  Any of the usual-suspects Linux distros should work;  Puppeee is what I use to make the stick bootable, but then I replace the Puppeee files with Knoppix 3.7 (just because I'm used to it).

Boot from the stick.  Open a shell window and get into superuser mode by typing "su".  (Keep in mind that you're in whatever liveCD distro you used, not in Xandros, so you don't have to worry about the root password on your Xandros installation.  AFAIK, all liveCD distros leave the root password empty, and assume that you're allowed to go into it whenever you want to do whatever you want.)

Then mount the SSD partition containing the passwords.  If your Eee was still using the factory default setup and is a 4G or 8G model, it will have an unmodifiable "factory default" partition, a "user" partition, and two more.  I believe the password will be in the "user" partition (under Knoppix, I think it shows up as /dev/sdb2).  If your Eee was a 2G model, I think they don't have a separate factory-defaults partition, so you would want to mount the first partition instead (/dev/sdb1).

Open a shell window ("konsole" or whatever).  Edit the /etc/shadow file (in Knoppix, assuming a 4G/8G, it will be located at "/mnt/sdb2/etc/shadow").  The weird random characters on the first line (for user "root") between the second and third colon (':') contain the encrypted password.  Simply delete it.  For example, if the password line for root (should be the very first line) looks like:

root:839478397498d89s8df9879234:13333:0:99999:2:::

change it to:

root::13333:0:99999:2:::

Use whatever editor you want (but if you don't use "vi", you're either a weenie or a splittist counterrevolutionary running dog lackey who should be shot).

Save the file, get back to the shell prompt, and type "sync" (no quotes) and hit enter to be sure everything is written to SSD.  In fact, if you want to be traditional, do that three times.

Reboot.  Your Eee's Xandros install no longer has a root password.  I would tend to recommend giving it one, but you don't necessarily have to.

Summary:

(boot from stick, open shell window)
su
mount /mnt/sdb2
vi /mnt/sdb2/etc/shadow

(remove the password gunk and save file;  in vi, the command would be "/root<cr>f: cf::<esc>:wq<cr>" -- note the space after the "f:", which moves to the character after the colon, and note also that <esc> means hit the escape key, and <cr> means hit the return key)

sync ; sync ; sync

reboot

Disclaimer:  I haven't tried it on my Eee.  I've had to do this on old hard drive installs where I've forgotten the passwords, so I know it should work.

Last edited by Harrison (2008-05-22 9:41:14 pm)

Harrison, you shouldn't even need puppy linux. At the F9 Normal/Restore to factory menu you can hit e to edit the grub menu for normal and then add something like XANDROSDEBUG=y to the kernel line. That will then drop you into a busybox shell where you can edit the password file. (IIRC vi is present but I don't think any other editors are)