[gNewSense-users] I did something stupid - root password locked :-(

[andrei raevsky]

Hi,

I just installed gNewSense on a friend's computer.  The Ubuntu
installer asks for the creation of a user with root-type admin access.
I created that account under my friend's name, then when I wanted to
create another account for his brother I realized that my friend would
have full admin access.  So I used his account to create another
account for his brother and then I took away my friend's admin
privileges.

Not smart.

I forgot that I had no root password configured by the installer and
that now that the first user account had lost its root admin
privileges, *nobody* would have such an access except for the locked
(no password) root account.

Does Ubuntu/gNewSense provide a default root password?

I tried a couple of obvious ones, but that did not work.

Then I booted up the live CD, mounted the / partition of the hard
drive and deleted the root password in the /etc/shadow file (on the
hard disk, not on the  live-CD's  /etc in the RAM).  Then I rebooted,
but still could not log in as root with a blank password.  Looks like
I forgot how to reset the root password with a live-CD...

Once home, I looked up the Koppix hack # 66 "resetting the linux (sic)
passwords" which says to mount the disk and then to do 'sudo chroot
/media/hda1 passwd' (the books actually says '/mnt/hda1' as it is good
for the older Knoppix).

Will that work for gNewSense?

Is there a default root password placed by the installer?

Why does the installer not ask for the creation of two accounts, one
root and one user?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Andrei