I have been put in charge of a mediawiki but do not have the sysop password. Is there any way for me to reset it if I have read/write access to the directory it is installed in? Attempts to contact the prior admin have not been successful.
Fill AdminSettings.php with your database information, then open up the shell and cd to the maintenance directory of your MediaWiki installation. Then: /usr/local/php5/bin/php changePassword.php --user=WikiSysop --password=foo
You can change your password again in Specialreferences once you've logged in.
You could also just use the "E-mail password" function on Special:Userlogin (if you know which email address it uses). You might have to set your account's email address in the database if the installation doesn't do that for you.