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I have a ZTE Vodafone WebBox W1, but I have lost the password. What can I do to reset the password?

Andre Winnaar
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user166542
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  • So you can't start the fail safe mode? Maybe you should reinstall. – Manuel Jun 12 '13 at 06:59
  • is there no other answer as i am not able to get any resuls. after i keyed in mount/dev/mmcblkop3/mnt. screen displays not found. please help i am at my wits end..my webbook is a vodafoneON9. Running Ubunthu busybox v1.13.3 –  Jun 08 '14 at 12:01

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Eventually i worked out how to reset the root password on the vodafone webbook on9 running ubuntu 10.04 (should work for other versions too).

  1. remove battery. this exposes a tiny slide switch. push switch to left (i used a toothpick). this puts the webbook into cdrom mode. Replace battery.

  2. power up and wait 15 secs or so. you now get a series of questions about configuring a cdrom (don't worry, i don't have one either!) the answers are: No, No and Continue. You get to a menu labeled 'Ubuntu Installer main menu'.

  3. Choose the last but one menu item 'Execute a shell' You get a message about running 'ash', select 'Continue'. You are now in a normal root shell (note: this mini OS is running on a ram disk, you can't see your hard disk yet).

  4. Now mount your hard disk: keyin 'mount /dev/mmcblk0p3 /mnt' (it took me ages to find that hard disk link!)

  5. Change your effective root directory to the hard drive. Keyin 'chroot /mnt'

  6. Now change your password. Keyin 'passwd' and enter the new root password twice (note, it doesn't echo your password keystrokes). After the second entry it should say "password updated successfully".

  7. You can change other users' passwords by entering 'passwd username'. I did do this but my username didn't work because, i think, my root partition is full.

  8. Keyin 'exit' twice, this takes you back to the Ubuntu Installer main menu. Now choose the bottom option 'Abort the Installation'. Say 'Yes' to 'Are you sure you want to exit now?' And the system shuts down. Power webbook off before it reboots.

  9. Remove battery, push switch to right and replace battery.

  10. Boot as normal. If your login window does not have the root user, choose 'Other', keyin 'root' plus the password you set.

I hope this helps.

Colin Ridout
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