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I just now got a new computer today from a friend. I have researched all the posts on Google to try to find out how to reset the root password since I do not know it and cannot get ahold of him. Tried remounting, tells me it cannot find it. Tried going through the recovery menu, of course I get the error since it is in read-only. When I tried to go through the fdisk to get it into read-only, it said something about checked etc clean blocks and then sits there. I do not know what to do at this point. Any help would be appreciated

Angela
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  • If the root password was set (not the case in Ubuntu by default), and then forgotten, there is no way to reset it. Remounting also shouldn't work, as it requires elevated privileges. If, on the other hand, you need to reset the friend's user password, use mount -o remount,rw /dev/sdXY. – mikewhatever Jun 24 '13 at 03:51
  • @mikewhatever You can always reset the password if you have physical access to the machine (recovery boot option) or the ability to run from a Live CD! See the answers in the duplicate question I marked this with. – gertvdijk Jun 24 '13 at 09:47

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As you have physical access to your computer, try next:

In Grub boot menu press e.

Go to boot line and add at the end "rw init=/bin/bash" and press F10 to start boot - you will get root shell so you can change root password

Viktor K
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If the computer has a root password set by default, then the vendor of the computer has installed Ubuntu wrong. (Details: Computer vendors need to install using the OEM install instead of the regular install.)

This is entirely the fault of the vendor of your computer.

All you can do is reinstall Ubuntu.

To do this, you need to create an installer DVD or an installer USB stick.

Then, start your computer from the DVD or USB stick. You can do this by pressing the "Select boot device" button on the startup screen of your computer.

jobukkit
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