Thinkpads Forum

I need help here. I have a 600e with Suse Linux installed but the guy I got the laptop from says he doesn't know the login password. I also don't know the login name. I would either like to find a way to get logged in or just erase it completely. I have no experience with linux what so ever.

That's going to be difficult (I assume you are talking about the superuser password). You can always download SuSE ISOs and create a set of install CDs. It probably sounds intimidating if you are new to Linux, but SuSE is about as easy to install as Windows nowadays, and it should autodetect all your hardware.

Fast reply, thanks. I could try the CDs but when I start my 600e with the CD drive in, it gives me a 174 error. But I will try it.

EDIT: I don't know the version of Suse I got either, will the newer one work?

Linux has multiple "run modes", which include classic console, X, shutdown, etc. One is "single user mode".

Most linux bootloaders should allow you to access a prompt where you can specify what to boot (with LILO, it used to be CTRL-X). If you have a very short timeout, you'll need to be quick on the draw.

At the prompt, type "linux single", and press enter. It'll boot into single-user mode without XWindows, networking, or anything else. You will be logged in as "root" without being asked for a password. I guess you could call it a sort of "safe mode".

Anyway, once you get a console prompt, type "passwd root", and follow the prompts to set a new root password (won't ask for old password). Then, type either "reboot" or (if you're old-fashioned) "shutdown -r now" and let the system kick over. Log in with your new root password, and then you can add/remove user accounts as you need to.

Rob

Saysana13B wrote:Fast reply, thanks. I could try the CDs but when I start my 600e with the CD drive in, it gives me a 174 error. But I will try it.

EDIT: I don't know the version of Suse I got either, will the newer one work?

I am sorry, but I don't know. You'll probably have to search Google for that, or give it a try and see if it works. If you were to run into any problems, it would be something fixable by some manual installing of driver modules or the like, at any rate.

Rob Mayercik wrote:At the prompt, type "linux single", and press enter. It'll boot into single-user mode without XWindows, networking, or anything else. You will be logged in as "root" without being asked for a password. I guess you could call it a sort of "safe mode".

Let me reiterate.

Are you saying that anyone can log into a Linux box as superuser without a superuser password? Grant you, I've only been at Linux for less than 1 year now. But I just can't believe something like Linux would have such a feature. How about calling it "unsafe mode"?

I read that Suse doesn't allow you to log into anything without a password.

The problem is fixed though, I just installed my HD on another laptop and wiped it clean. I guess my experience with Linux was a short one.

Saysana13B wrote: The problem is fixed though, I just installed my HD on another laptop and wiped it clean. I guess my experience with Linux was a short one.

That's too bad. You don't know what you are missing!

I'd love to try it out but Its a 4 gig HD and my CD drive doesn't work. I'm going over to a friends to get win95 on my HD. Maybe when I get a bigger HD, I'll try Suse.

Thinkpaddict wrote:

Rob Mayercik wrote:At the prompt, type "linux single", and press enter. It'll boot into single-user mode without XWindows, networking, or anything else. You will be logged in as "root" without being asked for a password. I guess you could call it a sort of "safe mode".

Let me reiterate.

Are you saying that anyone can log into a Linux box as superuser without a superuser password? Grant you, I've only been at Linux for less than 1 year now. But I just can't believe something like Linux would have such a feature. How about calling it "unsafe mode"?

Well, I wouldn't call it "safe" either, but that was the best description I could come up with. Perhaps "recovery console" would have been better.

(copied from http://www.networkclue.com/os/Linux/run-levels.aspx)
Linux has 6 different run levels (or operating modes):

1. rc1.d - Single User Mode
2. rc2.d - Single User Mode with Networking
3. rc3.d - Multi-User Mode - boot up in text mode
4. rc4.d - Not yet Defined
5. rc5.d - Multi-User Mode - boot up in X Windows
6. rc6.d - Shutdown

Most folks run in either Run Levels 3 or 5, depending on whether they default to console (3) or Xwindows (5).

I learned about this a couple of years ago, when I was working on some Linux boxes. On occasion, I had to use single-user mode to straighten out something I screwed up.

I don't know that single-user mode is necessarily a Linux-specific thing; I'd lean more toward it being inherited from UNIX. It may even be possible to disable it, but I've never tried.

I rarely mention this mode (due to the implications you so eloquently noted above ), but I figured this might be a way out of his pickle without going "scorched earth", which he wound up doing anyway.

To the original poster - try to get at least Windows 98SE (Second Edition) if you can - I found that I needed at least that for my wireless network card to work, and it runs great on a 600-series machine. Windows 95 is terribly old nowadays, and application software for it will be even harder to come by than for 98.

Rob

Rob,

Thanks for your explanation. I was aware of the run levels (I just got done reading Beginning Linux Programming ). I just didn't know that you could actually log in as superuser without a password using single user level. Are you sure this is not just some misconfiguration in the particular Linux boxes that you used? If not, Holy *&^%*!

I concur with you about Win95, at least Win98SE should be what the OP needs.

Regards.

Thinkpaddict wrote:Rob,

Thanks for your explanation. I was aware of the run levels (I just got done reading Beginning Linux Programming ). I just didn't know that you could actually log in as superuser without a password using single user level. Are you sure this is not just some misconfiguration in the particular Linux boxes that you used? If not, Holy *&^%*!

I concur with you about Win95, at least Win98SE should be what the OP needs.

Regards.

I don't really think that this is a misconfiguration issue, but rather the way the system is supposed to work. If you glance at that article I linked to, it mentions doing a hot switch to install a patch or restore files.

I'll admit that I've only had my hands on two distros - RedHat (6.0, 7.1) and Slackware (back in the "elder days" of the 1.2.6 kernel), but this run level thing doesn't strike me as something all that unique to either distribution.

From what I have read (and done with it), it seems like a maintenance mode that doesn't get used much. Minimal drivers are loaded (like in Safe Mode), and it seems to be the "escape hatch" for undoing things that have FUBARed the system. See http://www.linux.com/guides/sag/x2179.shtml for a better explanation of single-user mode. I've never tried to set up single user mode to ask for a password, but it does appear that it's possible to do. I've not run across a system that required a password for single-user mode myself, though (fortunate for me, but I have used it to reset a forgotten root password).

I also did a quick google and found this page, showing that many Unix versions also have a single-user mode (or, in some cases, something different in name but similar in function): http://www.phildev.net/runlevels.html.

Rob