Root Pass Work-around

Hi,

My two borthers and sister each got an Acer Aspire One for Christmas (I declined and went for a Gibson Explorer ).. They are all working fine, apart from my sisters.

When we turned it on, it went straight into the main screen with no initial set up required. Now when trying to do some more advanced stuff, it asks for a root password and this", is on the others a password tat was specified in the initial set up. To me this says that the system we bought was a return, and we paid full rpice for it. Plus with no known root pass we can't do anything more on it. I'm all for taking it back to the shop and getting a new one plus some kind of compensation for them screwing up christmas for my sister. However, my dad and sister both want some kind of workaround for it, so she can still use it now...

Is there a workaround for the rootpass? or a backdoor into the setup so we can specify a new password? We Could use the disc supplied to doa "Fresh install" but this feels like a lot of hassel.

Also check our blog for a record of our adventures into linux. The plan is to completely migrate the whole family across to linux, and these netbooks are a valuable step in the direction.

Thanks in advance,
James (ala Cyph)

 

Don't worry I've fixed it

in terminal enter the following

Code:

sudo su
**followed by**
passwd

This allows you to reset the password for the SU/Root thus problem solved. Ish... checking through the files theres music and some pictures from the web cam and some documents, this is definitely a returned item. mum is raging and it's still going back.. stupid tesco's... looks like it was bought originally in November ...

-Cyph

 

Power-On password not taking

Damn thing doesn't turn on after I turned on the power-on (boot) password in the BIOS setup. One turns that on after entering a supervisor password, which I did, but nothing works. The original password on initial setup was changed when it insanely said my nonsense word was a dictionary word, but after needing the new one for "returning from suspend" only, it went back to wanting the old one, same as the supervisor password. Nothing works and it doesn't turn on, asking for curent password. Does it want it twice or supervisor and then regular? Since the entire logon Linux code on these things is entirely flawed, allowing access right into the kernal without password (or so it seems), is this a result of theat?

I did all updates on the Live Update, and some of the Software Updater:
Gstream, aAwty, Arj, Arts, Aspell, Atr, Audit, Avahi, + the instructions for updating the Yum Fedora Software updater in the beginners KING main page.

What is a work around or override to get into this thing.

DO NOT SET THE POWER-ON PASSWORD!!! It cannot be trusted.

 

The BIOS password has some limitations: as I recall (depending on your BIOS version) it's upper case only and I think eight characters, although in the setup screen it appears to accept longer passwords and mixed case. Searching for BIOS Password on the forums will bring up some useful threads.

The Linux passwords are quite separate. I'd wonder if you were best to re-run the original 'out of box experience' to get the passwords set up as Acer Linpus expects (just run 'sudo oobe' from a command line). This should have been run on first boot; I wonder if your sister got a return or a demo model from whoever sold it to her....

 

Thanks Daldred. Saw that (your?) post somewhere else also. That's it- the BIOS (supervisor) boot or power-on password uses CAPITALS, even if you didn't on entering it! I used letters and numbers- the numbers were normal. Crazy and stupid, not a limitation. It is also only 8 characters, but AAO calls it the supervisor password. The problem is their incredibly flawed logon and password code, that gives all permissions and rights to the user, thus defeating the huge security protections of LINUX. There is a rewrite of that logon code on one of the original READ THIS beginner posts, but it's not exact enough to follow (and does it cause any other problems with updates or programs?). I would love to have a properly corrected code for that- up to date.
Mako

 

Hang on - the BIOS password and the Operating System passwords are necessarily separate; there is no OS running at the time a BIOS password is entered!

 

Yeah, sure I understand that, but I made them the same. As I said I did the initial logon password, which then changed to a longer one cause it was saying dictionary word, then it somehow reverted to original one, and in the BIOS, now shows that main password as being clear. Go figure. It's useless anyway since it only restricts logon from suspend or screensaver.

I want the full edit protocol to correct their crappy insane logon procedure (someone said they should be shot, and my friend, a prof LINUX guy, agreed with that in 10 seconds of looking at code).

 

Ah right: from the way you criticised the BIOS password system then said the problem was the Linux setup, I thought you were linking them.

Someone did a bit of work on how to restore proper Linux security: if you search for 'PolicyKit' I think you'll find the details fairly easily.