forgot my root password. Im obviosuly dumb.

B

blackoutspy

Registered
I havn't used my root password in a while, but i just found my self needing to kill -9 a task, and i know that i need to be root to do it. So i su'd. But i forgot my password!:mad: Im kinda of weary in getting help with this because i know that asking the question "how do i get my root password with out being root" has a bit of ethical bagage. But i can only start by saying that this is, truly for my own use, on my laptop. Im not trying to hack some webserver and deface its website or anything. So if anyone could help me that would be great. But i understand if the ethical side of it is too hard to ignore.
 
you can change the passwords of users/root by using the OS X install disk that came with your machine, assuming your computer came with Jaguar

if not, a retail jaguar cd will work

when the installer comes up, click on the Installer -> change password and follow the instructions

hope that helps as that's the easiest way i know other than going into single user mode and changing it from there
 
there are several apps that will control processes without a root password - only an admin password is required. maintain1 and processwizard will both do it.
 
Hmm, if you do it from single user mode, you'll have to remount the root disk to read/write mode (I'm pretty sure it tells you how right on the console.) And will you have to bring up Netinfo manually to even change the password? In any case, I'm sure it could be simplified to a sequence of steps to follow. It's probably something like this:

1. Boot single user mode
2. fsck as instructed
3. mount -uw /
4. /System/Library/StartupItems/NetInfo/NetInfo start
5. passwd

Correct as necessary. Heh.
 
hmmm sudo doesn't require a root password, your normal administrative account password will work just fine.
 
YUS! sudo passwd root does, infact work for changing the root password!!! Thanks so much everyone=) Rekindled my love for this forum:p
 
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