Reset root password for Ubuntu 16.04 - recovery mode asks for root password [duplicate]
This question already has an answer here:
How do I reset a lost password (using recovery mode requires me to type the password)?
4 answers
How do I reset a lost administrative password?
15 answers
We've lost the root password from our file server from supermicro server.
I tried to follow the common instructions to reboot with left shift and drop to root shell as it is described in this answer.
When I choose root in this menu:
Ubuntu still asks for root password or propose to press Ctrl+D to return to Recovery menu.
Are there any other ways to reset root password?
password root recovery-mode
marked as duplicate by Zanna, muru, Eric Carvalho, Eliah Kagan, Charles Green Nov 28 '17 at 14:35
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
|
show 3 more comments
This question already has an answer here:
How do I reset a lost password (using recovery mode requires me to type the password)?
4 answers
How do I reset a lost administrative password?
15 answers
We've lost the root password from our file server from supermicro server.
I tried to follow the common instructions to reboot with left shift and drop to root shell as it is described in this answer.
When I choose root in this menu:
Ubuntu still asks for root password or propose to press Ctrl+D to return to Recovery menu.
Are there any other ways to reset root password?
password root recovery-mode
marked as duplicate by Zanna, muru, Eric Carvalho, Eliah Kagan, Charles Green Nov 28 '17 at 14:35
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
You have physical access to this machine? Boot it with a life USB is an option too.
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 12:38
Yes I have access. But what soul I do with usb?
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 12:42
in live CD after Ctrl-Alt-F1, I login as ubuntu and empty pass. then I do sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt. Then I do sudo chroot /mnt. This command did not work: "chroot: failed to run command '/bin/bash': No such file or directory. Nevertheless, chroot --help gives me a help.
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 13:20
seen unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128046/… for that. Chroot is not missing, it is missing stuff inside your chroot environment to properly start up
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 13:27
1
@zlon Ifsudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
shows no errors and thensudo chroot /mnt
fails with the error messagechroot: failed to run command ‘/bin/bash’: No such file or directory
, that means thebash
shell was not found in the usual place inside the partition mounted in/mnt
. Although there are several possible causes for that, in practice it simply means that you mounted the wrong partition. Your installed system's root partition is not always/dev/sda1
. You've accepted an answer, indicating that this is now solved. Was that the cause? Was your root partition not/dev/sda1
?
– Eliah Kagan
Nov 26 '17 at 18:12
|
show 3 more comments
This question already has an answer here:
How do I reset a lost password (using recovery mode requires me to type the password)?
4 answers
How do I reset a lost administrative password?
15 answers
We've lost the root password from our file server from supermicro server.
I tried to follow the common instructions to reboot with left shift and drop to root shell as it is described in this answer.
When I choose root in this menu:
Ubuntu still asks for root password or propose to press Ctrl+D to return to Recovery menu.
Are there any other ways to reset root password?
password root recovery-mode
This question already has an answer here:
How do I reset a lost password (using recovery mode requires me to type the password)?
4 answers
How do I reset a lost administrative password?
15 answers
We've lost the root password from our file server from supermicro server.
I tried to follow the common instructions to reboot with left shift and drop to root shell as it is described in this answer.
When I choose root in this menu:
Ubuntu still asks for root password or propose to press Ctrl+D to return to Recovery menu.
Are there any other ways to reset root password?
This question already has an answer here:
How do I reset a lost password (using recovery mode requires me to type the password)?
4 answers
How do I reset a lost administrative password?
15 answers
password root recovery-mode
password root recovery-mode
edited Nov 26 '17 at 8:12
Zanna
50.7k13135241
50.7k13135241
asked Nov 25 '17 at 12:32
zlonzlon
147117
147117
marked as duplicate by Zanna, muru, Eric Carvalho, Eliah Kagan, Charles Green Nov 28 '17 at 14:35
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
marked as duplicate by Zanna, muru, Eric Carvalho, Eliah Kagan, Charles Green Nov 28 '17 at 14:35
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
You have physical access to this machine? Boot it with a life USB is an option too.
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 12:38
Yes I have access. But what soul I do with usb?
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 12:42
in live CD after Ctrl-Alt-F1, I login as ubuntu and empty pass. then I do sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt. Then I do sudo chroot /mnt. This command did not work: "chroot: failed to run command '/bin/bash': No such file or directory. Nevertheless, chroot --help gives me a help.
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 13:20
seen unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128046/… for that. Chroot is not missing, it is missing stuff inside your chroot environment to properly start up
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 13:27
1
@zlon Ifsudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
shows no errors and thensudo chroot /mnt
fails with the error messagechroot: failed to run command ‘/bin/bash’: No such file or directory
, that means thebash
shell was not found in the usual place inside the partition mounted in/mnt
. Although there are several possible causes for that, in practice it simply means that you mounted the wrong partition. Your installed system's root partition is not always/dev/sda1
. You've accepted an answer, indicating that this is now solved. Was that the cause? Was your root partition not/dev/sda1
?
– Eliah Kagan
Nov 26 '17 at 18:12
|
show 3 more comments
You have physical access to this machine? Boot it with a life USB is an option too.
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 12:38
Yes I have access. But what soul I do with usb?
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 12:42
in live CD after Ctrl-Alt-F1, I login as ubuntu and empty pass. then I do sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt. Then I do sudo chroot /mnt. This command did not work: "chroot: failed to run command '/bin/bash': No such file or directory. Nevertheless, chroot --help gives me a help.
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 13:20
seen unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128046/… for that. Chroot is not missing, it is missing stuff inside your chroot environment to properly start up
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 13:27
1
@zlon Ifsudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
shows no errors and thensudo chroot /mnt
fails with the error messagechroot: failed to run command ‘/bin/bash’: No such file or directory
, that means thebash
shell was not found in the usual place inside the partition mounted in/mnt
. Although there are several possible causes for that, in practice it simply means that you mounted the wrong partition. Your installed system's root partition is not always/dev/sda1
. You've accepted an answer, indicating that this is now solved. Was that the cause? Was your root partition not/dev/sda1
?
– Eliah Kagan
Nov 26 '17 at 18:12
You have physical access to this machine? Boot it with a life USB is an option too.
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 12:38
You have physical access to this machine? Boot it with a life USB is an option too.
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 12:38
Yes I have access. But what soul I do with usb?
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 12:42
Yes I have access. But what soul I do with usb?
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 12:42
in live CD after Ctrl-Alt-F1, I login as ubuntu and empty pass. then I do sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt. Then I do sudo chroot /mnt. This command did not work: "chroot: failed to run command '/bin/bash': No such file or directory. Nevertheless, chroot --help gives me a help.
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 13:20
in live CD after Ctrl-Alt-F1, I login as ubuntu and empty pass. then I do sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt. Then I do sudo chroot /mnt. This command did not work: "chroot: failed to run command '/bin/bash': No such file or directory. Nevertheless, chroot --help gives me a help.
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 13:20
seen unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128046/… for that. Chroot is not missing, it is missing stuff inside your chroot environment to properly start up
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 13:27
seen unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128046/… for that. Chroot is not missing, it is missing stuff inside your chroot environment to properly start up
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 13:27
1
1
@zlon If
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
shows no errors and then sudo chroot /mnt
fails with the error message chroot: failed to run command ‘/bin/bash’: No such file or directory
, that means the bash
shell was not found in the usual place inside the partition mounted in /mnt
. Although there are several possible causes for that, in practice it simply means that you mounted the wrong partition. Your installed system's root partition is not always /dev/sda1
. You've accepted an answer, indicating that this is now solved. Was that the cause? Was your root partition not /dev/sda1
?– Eliah Kagan
Nov 26 '17 at 18:12
@zlon If
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
shows no errors and then sudo chroot /mnt
fails with the error message chroot: failed to run command ‘/bin/bash’: No such file or directory
, that means the bash
shell was not found in the usual place inside the partition mounted in /mnt
. Although there are several possible causes for that, in practice it simply means that you mounted the wrong partition. Your installed system's root partition is not always /dev/sda1
. You've accepted an answer, indicating that this is now solved. Was that the cause? Was your root partition not /dev/sda1
?– Eliah Kagan
Nov 26 '17 at 18:12
|
show 3 more comments
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Since you have physical access to the machine you can do this via an Live USB/CD.
Boot from your USB and chose 'Try Ubuntu' instead of 'Install Ubuntu'.
Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and first look what device handle your machine disk has. You can do that with
lsblk
which should yield an output like this (I used a live CD for this since I am reproducing the steps in a VM):
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 119,2G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:2 0 16G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda2 8:3 0 103,2G 0 part /
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom /cdrom
So in this case it would be
/dev/sda2
but this could differ for your installation.
Now mount the partition in question with:
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
Now coming to the part where you can finally1
chroot
into it.
sudo chroot /mnt
You will see that your prompt has changed to something like
root@ubuntu:/#
and now the next steps are pretty straightforward.
Change the password for your users with
passwd
:
passwd root
passwd <main-user>
This should have done it already, but if that for whatever case setting passwords with the
passwd
command fails, you can go deep down the rabbit hole and change the/etc/shadow
file, but Beware: this is quite dangerous and you do this at your own risk.
Exit the
chroot
by pressing Ctrl+D or type exit. Unmount the machine withsudo umount /mnt
and then reboot bysudo reboot
. You want to take the USB/CD out and make sure you're actually booting the machine in question.
1 That chroot
ing method is sufficient to reset passwords, or even to add and remove users from groups, but it does not allow you to fully use the installed system through the chroot. Many other commands, such as apt
, would fail if you ran them in a chroot set up that way.
If you ever need to perform more extensive repairs on an installed system that you are accessing from a live CD/DVD/USB--for example by installing, removing, or updating software--then you would want to set up some additional mounts before chroot
ing. You would do that by running these commands after running sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
but before running sudo chroot /mnt
:
sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
sudo mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
sudo mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
If you have multiple partitions for the different parts of the OS, like for example a separate /boot
partition, then you would want to mount them to the right positions. For example, where sdX
is the device name for that particular drive and n
is the partition number:
sudo mount /dev/sdXn /mnt/boot
It is fine if you run those commands before chroot
ing in to reset passwords with the passwd
command. It is not necessary, though.
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Since you have physical access to the machine you can do this via an Live USB/CD.
Boot from your USB and chose 'Try Ubuntu' instead of 'Install Ubuntu'.
Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and first look what device handle your machine disk has. You can do that with
lsblk
which should yield an output like this (I used a live CD for this since I am reproducing the steps in a VM):
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 119,2G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:2 0 16G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda2 8:3 0 103,2G 0 part /
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom /cdrom
So in this case it would be
/dev/sda2
but this could differ for your installation.
Now mount the partition in question with:
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
Now coming to the part where you can finally1
chroot
into it.
sudo chroot /mnt
You will see that your prompt has changed to something like
root@ubuntu:/#
and now the next steps are pretty straightforward.
Change the password for your users with
passwd
:
passwd root
passwd <main-user>
This should have done it already, but if that for whatever case setting passwords with the
passwd
command fails, you can go deep down the rabbit hole and change the/etc/shadow
file, but Beware: this is quite dangerous and you do this at your own risk.
Exit the
chroot
by pressing Ctrl+D or type exit. Unmount the machine withsudo umount /mnt
and then reboot bysudo reboot
. You want to take the USB/CD out and make sure you're actually booting the machine in question.
1 That chroot
ing method is sufficient to reset passwords, or even to add and remove users from groups, but it does not allow you to fully use the installed system through the chroot. Many other commands, such as apt
, would fail if you ran them in a chroot set up that way.
If you ever need to perform more extensive repairs on an installed system that you are accessing from a live CD/DVD/USB--for example by installing, removing, or updating software--then you would want to set up some additional mounts before chroot
ing. You would do that by running these commands after running sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
but before running sudo chroot /mnt
:
sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
sudo mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
sudo mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
If you have multiple partitions for the different parts of the OS, like for example a separate /boot
partition, then you would want to mount them to the right positions. For example, where sdX
is the device name for that particular drive and n
is the partition number:
sudo mount /dev/sdXn /mnt/boot
It is fine if you run those commands before chroot
ing in to reset passwords with the passwd
command. It is not necessary, though.
add a comment |
Since you have physical access to the machine you can do this via an Live USB/CD.
Boot from your USB and chose 'Try Ubuntu' instead of 'Install Ubuntu'.
Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and first look what device handle your machine disk has. You can do that with
lsblk
which should yield an output like this (I used a live CD for this since I am reproducing the steps in a VM):
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 119,2G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:2 0 16G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda2 8:3 0 103,2G 0 part /
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom /cdrom
So in this case it would be
/dev/sda2
but this could differ for your installation.
Now mount the partition in question with:
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
Now coming to the part where you can finally1
chroot
into it.
sudo chroot /mnt
You will see that your prompt has changed to something like
root@ubuntu:/#
and now the next steps are pretty straightforward.
Change the password for your users with
passwd
:
passwd root
passwd <main-user>
This should have done it already, but if that for whatever case setting passwords with the
passwd
command fails, you can go deep down the rabbit hole and change the/etc/shadow
file, but Beware: this is quite dangerous and you do this at your own risk.
Exit the
chroot
by pressing Ctrl+D or type exit. Unmount the machine withsudo umount /mnt
and then reboot bysudo reboot
. You want to take the USB/CD out and make sure you're actually booting the machine in question.
1 That chroot
ing method is sufficient to reset passwords, or even to add and remove users from groups, but it does not allow you to fully use the installed system through the chroot. Many other commands, such as apt
, would fail if you ran them in a chroot set up that way.
If you ever need to perform more extensive repairs on an installed system that you are accessing from a live CD/DVD/USB--for example by installing, removing, or updating software--then you would want to set up some additional mounts before chroot
ing. You would do that by running these commands after running sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
but before running sudo chroot /mnt
:
sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
sudo mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
sudo mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
If you have multiple partitions for the different parts of the OS, like for example a separate /boot
partition, then you would want to mount them to the right positions. For example, where sdX
is the device name for that particular drive and n
is the partition number:
sudo mount /dev/sdXn /mnt/boot
It is fine if you run those commands before chroot
ing in to reset passwords with the passwd
command. It is not necessary, though.
add a comment |
Since you have physical access to the machine you can do this via an Live USB/CD.
Boot from your USB and chose 'Try Ubuntu' instead of 'Install Ubuntu'.
Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and first look what device handle your machine disk has. You can do that with
lsblk
which should yield an output like this (I used a live CD for this since I am reproducing the steps in a VM):
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 119,2G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:2 0 16G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda2 8:3 0 103,2G 0 part /
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom /cdrom
So in this case it would be
/dev/sda2
but this could differ for your installation.
Now mount the partition in question with:
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
Now coming to the part where you can finally1
chroot
into it.
sudo chroot /mnt
You will see that your prompt has changed to something like
root@ubuntu:/#
and now the next steps are pretty straightforward.
Change the password for your users with
passwd
:
passwd root
passwd <main-user>
This should have done it already, but if that for whatever case setting passwords with the
passwd
command fails, you can go deep down the rabbit hole and change the/etc/shadow
file, but Beware: this is quite dangerous and you do this at your own risk.
Exit the
chroot
by pressing Ctrl+D or type exit. Unmount the machine withsudo umount /mnt
and then reboot bysudo reboot
. You want to take the USB/CD out and make sure you're actually booting the machine in question.
1 That chroot
ing method is sufficient to reset passwords, or even to add and remove users from groups, but it does not allow you to fully use the installed system through the chroot. Many other commands, such as apt
, would fail if you ran them in a chroot set up that way.
If you ever need to perform more extensive repairs on an installed system that you are accessing from a live CD/DVD/USB--for example by installing, removing, or updating software--then you would want to set up some additional mounts before chroot
ing. You would do that by running these commands after running sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
but before running sudo chroot /mnt
:
sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
sudo mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
sudo mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
If you have multiple partitions for the different parts of the OS, like for example a separate /boot
partition, then you would want to mount them to the right positions. For example, where sdX
is the device name for that particular drive and n
is the partition number:
sudo mount /dev/sdXn /mnt/boot
It is fine if you run those commands before chroot
ing in to reset passwords with the passwd
command. It is not necessary, though.
Since you have physical access to the machine you can do this via an Live USB/CD.
Boot from your USB and chose 'Try Ubuntu' instead of 'Install Ubuntu'.
Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and first look what device handle your machine disk has. You can do that with
lsblk
which should yield an output like this (I used a live CD for this since I am reproducing the steps in a VM):
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 119,2G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:2 0 16G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda2 8:3 0 103,2G 0 part /
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom /cdrom
So in this case it would be
/dev/sda2
but this could differ for your installation.
Now mount the partition in question with:
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
Now coming to the part where you can finally1
chroot
into it.
sudo chroot /mnt
You will see that your prompt has changed to something like
root@ubuntu:/#
and now the next steps are pretty straightforward.
Change the password for your users with
passwd
:
passwd root
passwd <main-user>
This should have done it already, but if that for whatever case setting passwords with the
passwd
command fails, you can go deep down the rabbit hole and change the/etc/shadow
file, but Beware: this is quite dangerous and you do this at your own risk.
Exit the
chroot
by pressing Ctrl+D or type exit. Unmount the machine withsudo umount /mnt
and then reboot bysudo reboot
. You want to take the USB/CD out and make sure you're actually booting the machine in question.
1 That chroot
ing method is sufficient to reset passwords, or even to add and remove users from groups, but it does not allow you to fully use the installed system through the chroot. Many other commands, such as apt
, would fail if you ran them in a chroot set up that way.
If you ever need to perform more extensive repairs on an installed system that you are accessing from a live CD/DVD/USB--for example by installing, removing, or updating software--then you would want to set up some additional mounts before chroot
ing. You would do that by running these commands after running sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
but before running sudo chroot /mnt
:
sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
sudo mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
sudo mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
If you have multiple partitions for the different parts of the OS, like for example a separate /boot
partition, then you would want to mount them to the right positions. For example, where sdX
is the device name for that particular drive and n
is the partition number:
sudo mount /dev/sdXn /mnt/boot
It is fine if you run those commands before chroot
ing in to reset passwords with the passwd
command. It is not necessary, though.
edited Nov 27 '17 at 20:26
answered Nov 25 '17 at 22:58
VideonauthVideonauth
24.1k1270100
24.1k1270100
add a comment |
add a comment |
You have physical access to this machine? Boot it with a life USB is an option too.
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 12:38
Yes I have access. But what soul I do with usb?
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 12:42
in live CD after Ctrl-Alt-F1, I login as ubuntu and empty pass. then I do sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt. Then I do sudo chroot /mnt. This command did not work: "chroot: failed to run command '/bin/bash': No such file or directory. Nevertheless, chroot --help gives me a help.
– zlon
Nov 25 '17 at 13:20
seen unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128046/… for that. Chroot is not missing, it is missing stuff inside your chroot environment to properly start up
– Videonauth
Nov 25 '17 at 13:27
1
@zlon If
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
shows no errors and thensudo chroot /mnt
fails with the error messagechroot: failed to run command ‘/bin/bash’: No such file or directory
, that means thebash
shell was not found in the usual place inside the partition mounted in/mnt
. Although there are several possible causes for that, in practice it simply means that you mounted the wrong partition. Your installed system's root partition is not always/dev/sda1
. You've accepted an answer, indicating that this is now solved. Was that the cause? Was your root partition not/dev/sda1
?– Eliah Kagan
Nov 26 '17 at 18:12