Ubuntu Servers :: Root Password Not Working - File Structure Unreadable
Aug 31, 2010
I have one of those ultra reliable Ubuntu servers in the corner that I never have to logon to because it never needs anything. I needed to check up on it today and my root password would not work. I am absolutely sure I did not forget my password and because I am the only Linux guy in the office I am sure some nimrod didn't get his fingers in the machine. I attempted to enter GRUB recovery mode but when I hit ESC it says something about no disk and goes into the booting process. I attempted to use a desktop version live CD, but the file structure is unreadable, I assume due to the security of the server system. Before I rebooted it the server worked fine, Apache and PHP were working away. Now the whole thing is a 50Lb boat anchor. How can I reset the password when I cannot enter GRUB menu or use a live CD?
i am running Ubuntu Lucid x64 as a fileserver that shares its files via SFTP, NFS and Samba. Currently the hard disks are configured to go to standby if they are not needed. This works perfectly as long as no one browses the shares or my HTPC is running: That one repeatedly looks through the shares for new music or movies. In other words my problem is that the disks are spinning up a lot more often than they should have to. Additionally the spin-up time delays the response time while browsing. Since the machine has a lot of unused RAM i want to tell the kernel that it should keep the directory structure in memory. That way the disks would not need to spin up every time someone browses through the directories.
I m Trying to get vsftpd usergroups to work i accidentally moved a file called passwd from /etc/vsftpd/ to /etc/, resulting in my root access is destroyed! how to restore the passwd file so i can keep working, or do i have to re-install the entire box?
I have forgotten my root password for MySQL, what can I do to recover it, I've found a few guides but they don't work on the newer versions of Ubuntu.I am running on Ubuntu 10.04 server so MySQL is an upstart job so the methods I've seen with launching it without the access checks haven't worked for me
I have forgotton my root password for mysql. I followed some instructions on a website and now I am not sure what i have done?Basically, when I now try and start mysql I get a notification that i have converted the init script to an upstart. I dont know what this means.
Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an Upstart job, you may also use the start( utility, e.g. start mysql mysql start/running, process 20301.
Using 11.04, and just installed mysql 5.1.54 using synaptic
I was following the instructions here and the installation when fine,
except that I never got a screen to set the root password.
When I try to set the password using these instructions, following either
"If you have never set a root password for MySQL" $ mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD
OR, since the first method failed me, then: "However, if you want to change (or update) a root password, then you need to use following command" $ mysqladmin -u root -p'oldpassword' password newpass
Either way, it fails. Question:
1) why am I not being prompted to set a root password during installation?
2) what can I do now to fix this??
I am trying to learn Mysql, so don't presume I know anything about command syntax (cookbook instructions) For example, the first command above,I tried with with NEWPASSWORD in quotes, and then without. Likewise for the second command.
I want to say hello for all as it is my first post. I have CentOS 5 I recently changed my root password. When I try my new password it doesn't work. For changing password first I connected using ssh connection I logged in. Then typed on shell passwd then the system asked me "new password" then asked "type it again" at the end I got successful message.
I am trying to set up a webserver with apache, mysql and php on a old pentrium 4 computer. When I tried to setup my MySQL password, I created a password with punctuation in it. MySQL didn't want the password and gave some error about BASH. I tried changing my password again but now I constantly get the error that I am unable to login. I tried all the possibilities with the password I entered before but i just can't login to MySQL anymore. I found some help sites on how to reset your password by running MySQL in the safe mode but that didn't work for me. Can anyone help me resetting my password? Next time i'll use a pass without punctuation Every help is much appreciated! BTW, I also tried uninstalling MySQL with yum (yum remove mysql) and it uninstalled, but when I installed it again the password was still there
I forgot my root password for mysql, and after some searching I found several solutions to fix it. But none of them seem to work.I tried this article http://ubuntu.flowconsult.at/en/mysq...root-password/ with starting mysql with the --skip-grant-tables option. The problem is that nothing happens, it just hangs.Also tried the the --init-file option, that one runs fine, at least it returned to the command line. But the sql query in the file to which it point doesnt seem to do anything. The password wasn't changed to the one I specified in the sql file.Any idea what could be going on here, and how I could fix it?
I'm using rhel 5, when i'm working in terminal first i typed su command and by mistake i entered copy command and some other characters, after realising i've made a mistake then i came out and continued with copy command in terminal.
after some time when i tried to login by using su and with password it says "incorrect password". So i logged out and entered root login for gui and it works well, but i'm not able to use the same password for su. can some one get around this issue?
I'm trying to install Skype on an Aspire One netbook, it shows the file in the downloads section but every time I click on it it asks for an administrator password. If I put this in the window closes and then comes up asking for it again a few seconds later, but if I put in the wrong password it gives me the option of changing it, but still won't allow me to run the programme
I can not entered root password via terminal while doing this it replied incorrect password even same password can be used from another GUI box. When I tried to use command Clt+Alt+F1, only black screen comes. I am using coreutils 8.4-9.fc13 from fedora of 32 bits
Reinstalled Debian Squeeze (64bit/gnome) on my Notebook using Netinstall. Everything worked like always but in the setup instead of typing in a root password as asked to i just pressed enter (in the hope of not having to type in a pw in the console later, just having to press enter then)
When i needed rootpw to install some software (using SoftwareDownloader) the normal loginpw seemed to work, but not in the console. ari@HP625:~$ su - Password: su: Authentication failure
sometime ago i have setup a nice Debian FTP server. and left the company. everything was working fine for about 5 month, administrator was able to login to root, do changes and manage system, etc. Suddenly he told me that he cannot login via PUTTY, the root user and pass say Access Denied.Looked all over the web for at least a REASON, but did not find anything. I suggested to go and do passwd reset, via runLevel 1. i hope this helps him. But i am still curious why all of the sudden, in a locked down room, where only one person has access root get disabled.
So i have a fresh install of the server edition of Karmic, i'm running the Xfce desktop. When I attempt to manage users and groups through the GUI, I am prompted for what I think is the root password, the reason I say this is because the account I am currently logged in has sudo privileges and it does not accept that password at all, but I read that by default the root account is 'locked,' (to be honest it was so long ago since I last installed Ubuntu I completely forgot if it is or isn't, my current desktop installation has su access) is it asking for the root password? why doesn't my current user account password work if the root account is 'locked'? I can perform all other administrative tasks with sudo no problem.
the funny thing is, I have the exact same setup in a virtual machine, the same problem happens, except for some strange reason after changing the password on the only account (besides root), the password required to administer users and groups stayed the same after the change. (at the time of installation I just put both the user and root password the same and now that it is setup), i'm now ready to change the passwords. except now I read that the root account is locked by default, but this strange problem occurs.
I set up a servber on my local machine, & also PHp - Both working fine.I'm trying to load up MYSQL i have installed it, & *can* start/stop the server. however if I do anything else with it, I get this error :-
Quote:
root@gordon-desktop:~# sudo mysqladmin -u root -h localhost password MYPASSWORD mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)'
Query :-
1) How do I know MYSQL is actually active ? (apart from the message it says that its statrted (or stopped).
2) Is there a way to
a) Find out the usernames that are recorded on the MYSQL server ? b) set / RESET the 'root' username (I know MYSQL root user is different to PC root user) c) anything else I can do on the PHP / website code to see if MYSQL is working
(as yet, no tables / databases etc have been set up - as I can't get past this error message - I get the same error when setting up a database.)
Ps I did allow my usermname (when logged in to ubuntu) to edit / create files in the /usr/www/ directory (but it is still OWNED by 'root' - that directory)
I can log in when using the keyboard from the server no problems but when I try and log on from my laptop this morning using putty I can connect type in my user name but when I put in my password it says access denied now I also can not FTP and webmin does not connect to the server but I can get to the web pages no problem with a browser so can this be fixed or do I have to start from scratch again to get me logged in with putty and webmin somehow the password is not working in ssh.
Why do I always need to write "su" then my password to extract or copy any file in fedora 11. How to configure so that I always be in my root directory.
I was looking for some way to make 'watch folder' and I found and installed inotify and incron. Explanations were perfect and everything seemed great. So I made test script and it worked as expected.
Now, bash script that was evoked by event by incron consisted this terrible line:
... mv * /some/folder/ ...
which I expected to be run from watched folder, but instead it is run on holy root /
Rest is tragedy: everything was moved to this folder and I can't access any command. Terminal was opened but it did not accept commands. I cd to '/some/folder/bin' then tried to execute command but no luck. I tried also Ctrl+Alt+F1 - same.
What can I do except reboot. Now what? Grub rescue failure prompt. I went in BIOS to make it boot from separate SATA HD with Windows 7, but it somehow isn't listed there. I can't think why. I tried from this Live CD to move folders to correct location, but it's Permission denied
[edit] Re-reading now, in terminal command 'cd' (change directory) was working, but sure not ls, mv and others. Maybe I could have done something, but probably not, network connection was lost, music stopped playing everything was vanishing...
I have installed Ubuntu Server 10.10 in Virtual Box in order to evaluate it for a project.I have installed Gnome and can log in fine using my password. However, whenever I am prompted for my password when doing anything SUDO I am told my password is incorrect, starting Synaptic, for example
I have just been bothered by a fairly small issue for some time now. I am trying to search (using find -name) for some .jpg files recursively. This is a Redhat environment with bash.
I get this job done though I need to copy ALL of them and put them in a separate folder BUT I also need to keep the order intact after copying.
For e.g - If I get a JPG file under /home/usr/new/1/ then the destination also needs to be /test/old/new/1/.
At the moment, I am simply putting all files under /test/old/ and I can't somehow get the later /new/1/ folder path created under /test/old/
I understand this could well be done using while OR if else loop, though if someone can just guide me with a hint, I would be really grateful.
I will complete the rest of the steps and was asking here since I am still not comfortable with the shell/bash scripts yet and planning to be really good at it over the next couple of months.
