New to Ubuntu and linux machines

Question

I'm new IT manager for an organisation and the previous person have installed Linux to maintain the computers. However, this is the first time I come in contact with Linux and Ubuntu. I'm trying to get into our image server, a kind of FOG web management. I can come in through a client's web browser but I want to be able to come into the actual machine and copy the images off the server to another computer. But the username and password that should work isn't working. I've tried many variants. So, I read some on Internet that it should be possible to reset the password by rebooting the server. What I found was to press the shift key during boot and a menu should come up with among other things a recovery option. However, that option isn't there. I only get two option: Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-2-686 and Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-2-686 (single-user mode)

How should I do to reset the password?

I assumed that the user name should be admin or administrator but I could be wrong?

Sincerely, Nitman

possible duplicate of How do I reset a lost administrative password? — dobey, Jan 22 '15 at 16:19
It seem you are using Debian not Ubuntu. If yes please ask your question on unix.stackexchange.com. — g_p, Jan 22 '15 at 16:21
also please try to use a title that summarizes the specific problem — steeldriver, Jan 22 '15 at 16:27
Fog boots over PXE, and it looks like you're booting to the local disk. — muru, Jan 23 '15 at 16:17
Sorry for my lack of knowledge. As I have started here I only have seen the word Ubuntu but of course, as you say, it does say Debian on my boot screen. I didn't put so much attention to that difference and I'm sorry I didn't check what Debian was. And you are right that it is similar to that other post (and that is actually the post I'm refering to in my post) but I didn't understand how that answered my question since I got another boot screen than what is shown on the linked post. — Nitman, Jan 23 '15 at 16:18

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 22 '15 at 16:24

Hi and welcome to the linux world ;)

The administrator user in linux is called "root".

You need to boot into "single-user mode" (wich you already found in the Grub boot menu)

After that execute theese commands:

mount -o remount,rw / (to remount the root filesystem read-write, so you can make changes to the filesystem)
passwd root (to change the root password, you need to enter it twice)
reboot (to restart the system and boot it normally)

Hope, this helps

New to Ubuntu and linux machines

1 Answers1