Password recovery

[bouncingwilf]

I recently re-installed Nadia rather than upgrading from Maya on one of my systems and in the process adopted a new password which I have since forgotten (but I'm sure I'll eventually remember it). Now being in a hurry (as one is) I thought no worry - I'll just boot into the root prompt and reset it. Here's where I've discovered what I see as a problem. If one boots into grub and selects recovery mode, one is offered the opportunity to drop to a root shell where password changes should be possible BUT this root shell now requires root password to get at the prompt. i.e. you can't reset root password unless you already know root password thus I see no obvious way of resetting a system. As one who has used and administered Unix type systems for the best part of 30 years (on and off), I find this irritating but perhaps that's just because I'm old and grumpy. Perhaps someone could enlighten me as to the reasoning behind this strange setup and a way as to avoid an irritaing re-install should I fail to remember the password.

Bouncingwilf

[xenopeek]

You can circumvent the root console asking for a password by booting directly into a root bash. The steps may differ a bit for Linux Mint 14, but here is my guide on how to do this on Linux Mint 13: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=110928&p=621487#p621487

[bouncingwilf]

Many thanks for your very quick reply - password recovery method noted! - I will either try it later or hopefully remember the old one. I'm still not sure of the logic of not going directly to a root prompt (physical access is effectively root access anyway)

Bouncingwilf

[xenopeek]

I think you can configure it somewhere, but I can't recall right now