[NCLUG] root/superuser pwd question

[Ben West]

use sudo su - the root password in scrambled in ubuntu installs for security


On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 4:02 PM, Mark McCulley <mmcculley at gmail.com> 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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Benjamin West