[NCLUG] root/superuser pwd question

[Mike Jensen]

When you are in grub (assuming your using grub, don't we all any more?) 
you can press e to edit a boot menu option.  Select the kernel line and
press e again to edit it.  Put '1' (without quotes) at the end of the line
to boot into run level 1.  Then inside run level 1 it should not prompt
you for any passwords.  But what it will allow you to do is 'passwd root'
to reset your root password into something else.

There are other ways to accomplish this too, but that is probably the
easiest IMO.
cheers,
Mike Jensen

On Tue, September 9, 2008 16:02, Mark McCulley wrote:
> I am working on converting my old Toshiba laptop to a Linux box, and
> installed a dual-boot of Debian (Hardy Heron).  It's telling me, on
> booting
> up Linux, that there are updates, and when I try to install them, I get a
> message that says
> "E:dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to
> correct the problem."
>
> When I open a terminal window and enter that string, it says I need
> super-user rights.  However, I don't recall the dual-boot install asking
> me
> to create a root user/password, and I don't have a record of the pwd.
> (Maybe I did but was interrupted at a crucial point...)  Have tried
> logging
> in as root with a few tries at a pwd but to no avail.
>
> Is there a way to recover the pwd?
> Or can I re-install over the original installation (only did it last week,
> so not a lot of changes since then) and start over?
>
> Can't find anything online about this question -- was hoping somebody had
> gone through this pain before.  Thanks!
> a newbie
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