Comments on: Ubuntu Guide For Windows Users: Reset Your Password When You Have Forgotten It

By: Felipe

Felipe — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:35:26 +0000

rw init=/bin/bash

that was perfect.
thank you.

but, what does it means?

is it something like "the initialization will be at directory /bin/bash (where I can execute comands as root) and I can read and write"?

By: Abdul

Abdul — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 06:49:27 +0000

@mario
Laptop BIOS since the early 90's have been made to write all changes to CMOS, so even when the battery is removed the information is kept. This is to keep stolen laptops, if the BIOS is password protected, from being usable. You might want to try the manufacturer of your laptop, and more than likely, you will have to show proof of ownership and even then there is no guarantee that they will provide you the master key. Best of luck!

By: Lexi

Lexi — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 06:43:59 +0000

Im a VERY new user to the Linux OS Ubuntu. If you look down at the tool bar there's a place where it says the user that is logged ins name. If you right click it brings up options. I clicked on "Edit Personal Information" And in the right hand top corner there's a place where it says your username and underneath that it says something about a password. I set up a password and forgot it now I can't remember it. So the case is It won't let me download anything. Although I can download videos and add-ons, small things. Would this guide your offering me be helpful in my situation?

By: jus

jus — Tue, 11 May 2010 06:32:59 +0000

what should I do if no matter how fast I press ESC it just won't go to grub prompt?

By: mario

mario — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:49:38 +0000

hi all,

i have a problem here.

i put a password for the bios of my laptop before a very long time and i didnt use it at all so i forgot it. everytime i format my laptop i just press f12 and it asks me to boot from cd and i do, but i cant enter to the bios setup. i installed the ubunto and i hope that there will be a solution for my problem.
so the password is only for the bios setup.
i tried by taking out the battery it didnt work. the motherboard has no jumpers ……
the laptop is fujitsu siemens s7020. bios is phoenix ver. 1.14
thanks.

By: daniel

daniel — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:07:09 +0000

@Daniel:

I did get complete satisfaction.

Tks.

Daniel.

By: ermaldemi

ermaldemi — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:38:46 +0000

@Silver:

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:46:40 +0000

It worked.

Thank you, THANK YOU, T H A N K Y O U

It took me a couple of tries and I got it OK.

Rolling again.

Tks so much.

If I can be of help. Please let me know

Daniel.

By: 1fastbullet

1fastbullet — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:30:42 +0000

@ Eternal Newbee

Daniel, you must shut the machine down.
When you reboot (restart) it, the machine goes through it's POST (Power On Self Test) and scrolls through a list of information including things such as the BIOS version, the hard drive and memory the machine sees. Then it will enter the GRUB loading stage. If it does not enter GRUB loading, you would never get to a welcome screen.

What you need to look for is in the UPPER, LEFT-HAND corner of your screen, after the POST completes. It will say simply "Loading GRUB 1.5" or something to that effect.

It is while this message is showing in the upper left-hand corner of your screen that you must press the Esc key.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:23:18 +0000

Hello all:

I'm stuck. I forgot my password.

I "tried" to follow the above procedure, yet, I am unable to "see" grub.

When linux starts to boot, I press ESC and it still loads.

Would it be because I'm using Linux Mint and the panel (starting panel when we turn on the computer) is not the same?

Signe: Eternal Newbee
Daniel.

By: Watching The Net

Watching The Net — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:31:43 +0000

@Debbie I believe your looking for this post --> Reset your Windows Password When You Have Forgotten It.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:33:57 +0000

hey iam asking for help for a friend, i told him there is a free disk that i can download for him. He has a vista P.C. and has forgotten or someone was playing aroung with his P.C. and changed his password, he needs passwoed to open enternet, so could you please send me an email about disk, i would appercite very much….

thanking you in addvance Debbie

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:39:51 +0000

To secure against this:

1. Disable boot from anything except hard disk in BIOS and password-protect
2. Make grub password ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=7353 )

Sorted.

By: diptimoy

diptimoy — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:15:31 +0000

It did not work. It is showing that command not found.

By: mngrif

mngrif — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:43:24 +0000

No amount of security will help if the attacker has physical access to the machine. There are even ways around drive encryption, especially if the drive is still mounted when the machine is 'attacked'. Boot passwords and BIOS passwords are easily circumvented to even the slightest determination. All you need is a livecd and a screwdriver!

The above shouldn't ever be used unless you really know what you're doing and won't work for encrypted volumes (in most cases you WILL run in to trouble if you set init to a shell, such as the environment not being set up (thus making vim and other editors useless)). Use the recovery mode to properly boot in to single user mode, as it will run through essential init scripts.

On most Linux installs, setting init=/bin/sh will boot with / in read only mode too since remounting it is handled by a init script.

It's called recovery mode for a reason! Use it!