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Password recovery
Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:36 pm
by Buck Fankers
This will sound weird
Short: Im auto logged into some my old MX, running it off of USB stick. Is there a way to retrieve user and admin passwords?
Long explanation. I have one live USB stick with MX19, maybe MX17, don't recall now, it auto logs in. But I have another MX user account, I used for some online forum, that I would like to retrieve it. I can't go to MX User Manager and change this second user login password, since I don't remember admin password for main MX into which I'm automatically logged in.
To be honest, it is not really a big loss, if I can't do anything about it (I didn't need it last several years lol), but if there is a way to change login password or retrieve it, I would be all ears.
Re: Password recovery
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2023 6:28 am
by mw1649
use your favorite search engine....linux forgot root password
Re: Password recovery [Solved]
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2023 11:12 am
by fehlix
Buck Fankers wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:36 pm
This will sound weird
Short: Im auto logged into some my old MX, running it off of USB stick. Is there a way to retrieve user and admin passwords?
Long explanation. I have one live USB stick with MX19, maybe MX17, don't recall now, it auto logs in. But I have another MX user account, I used for some online forum, that I would like to retrieve it. I can't go to MX User Manager and change this second user login password, since I don't remember admin password for main MX into which I'm automatically logged in.
To be honest, it is not really a big loss, if I can't do anything about it (I didn't need it last several years lol), but if there is a way to change login password or retrieve it, I would be all ears.
On MX LiveUSB -> select F4-option -> password, to reset root and demo password. you will be prompted to enter a new one.
May be I miss read it.
So alternatively, get a recent MX ISO and creat a LiveUSB, which comes with chroot-rescue tool,
it allows to get a chroot-terminal on the installed one.
you change toe root password on the installed with the chroot terminal with
and the user password with
Re: Password recovery
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2023 7:57 pm
by Buck Fankers
mw1649 wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2023 6:28 am
use your favorite search engine....linux forgot root password
I did. I probably didn't use proper/good phrase. I found responses like this bellow, where you go through grub rescue steps. Or chrooting. I have access to the system. So I though there maybe is simpler way.
https://linuxconfig.org/recover-reset-f ... t-password
Re: Password recovery
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2023 8:01 pm
by Buck Fankers
fehlix wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2023 11:12 am
On MX LiveUSB -> select F4-option -> password, to reset root and demo password. you will be prompted to enter a new one.
Fehlix thank you very much, I really appreciate it. It is simpler than I though. I thought I need current root password in order to change it. Super, will fix it today, thanks!
Re: Password recovery
Posted: Sun May 07, 2023 9:34 am
by Buck Fankers
I misplaced that USB stick and today I finally located it. (I marked it as solved since I couldn't test it at that time)
It is an older, MX17 version.
At which point do I press F4? At boot menu? Or inside live session (opens terminal but command password is not recognized)
fehlix wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2023 11:12 am
On MX LiveUSB -> select F4-option -> password, to reset root and demo password. you will be prompted to enter a new one.
At boot menu pressing F4 does nothing. If it matters, I have on USB stick MX and looks like some old Manjaro for which I don't care. At menu, where I would choose, MX or Manjaro I pressed F4.
My goal is, to log out from this live MX user into another user and log into some online account for which login info is stored in a browser of that user. And I don't remember passwords for this current auto-logged MX session or the one I would like to switch to.
Here is QSI running from this live USB stick:
Code: Select all
System: Host: mx Kernel: 4.15.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3
Distro: MX-17.1_x64 Horizon March 6, 2018
Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: B250M BAZOOKA (MS-7A70) v: 1.0 serial: N/A
UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 1.70 date: 07/03/2018
CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-7400 type: MCP L2 cache: 6144 KB
Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/3500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 802 3: 800 4: 800
Graphics: Card-1: Intel Device driver: i915 v: kernel
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.2) driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Kabylake GT2 v: 4.5 Mesa 13.0.6
Audio: Card-1: Intel Device driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-1-amd64
Network: Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 4c:cc:6a:d3:d8:3c
Drives: HDD Total Size: 960.76 GiB used: 5.09 GiB (0.5%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: WDC_WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0 size: 931.51 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB model: Cruzer_Blade size: 29.25 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 26.62 GiB used: 5.09 GiB (19.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos: Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list
1: deb http://iso.mxrepo.com/antix/stretch stretch main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
2: deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
1: deb http://iso.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ stretch main non-free
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list
Info: Processes: 197 Uptime: 1 min Memory: 15.56 GiB used: 523.5 MiB (3.3%) Shell: init
inxi: 2.9.08
Re: Password recovery
Posted: Sun May 07, 2023 10:05 am
by fehlix
Buck Fankers wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 9:34 am
At which point do I press F4? At boot menu? Or inside live session (opens terminal but command password is not recognized)
fehlix wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2023 11:12 am
On MX LiveUSB -> select F4-option -> password, to reset root and demo password. you will be prompted to enter a new one.
At boot menu pressing F4 does nothing. If it matters, I have on USB stick MX and looks like some old Manjaro for which I don't care. At menu, where I would choose, MX or Manjaro I pressed F4.
My goal is, to log out from this live MX user into another user and log into some online account for which login info is stored in a browser of that user. And I don't remember passwords for this current auto-logged MX session or the one I would like to switch to.
Here is QSI running from this live USB stick:
Code: Select all
System: Host: mx Kernel: 4.15.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3
Distro: MX-17.1_x64 Horizon March 6, 2018
Drives: HDD Total Size: 960.76 GiB used: 5.09 GiB (0.5%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: WDC_WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0 size: 931.51 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB model: Cruzer_Blade size: 29.25 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 26.62 GiB used: 5.09 GiB (19.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
MX LiveUSB created with MX Live USB maker, would show a LiveUSB boot menu,
where you can re-set with live-boot parameter "password" the password for demo and root ( or anotehr lvie user
with password=myusername.
This looks like MX was made with a "normal" installation onto the USB on /dev/sda1.
I guess the term "live" may have been create confusion in regard to boot from USB.
So, for "installed" (non-live) system you can try either
boot into the installed using chroot-rescue-scan and give a new password with the password command.
or use the hack with init=/bin/bash boot parameter together with changing "ro" to "rw"
and change the password on the bash prompt.
Re: Password recovery
Posted: Sun May 07, 2023 10:20 am
by Buck Fankers
fehlix wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 10:05 am
MX LiveUSB created with MX Live USB maker, would show a LiveUSB boot menu,
where you can re-set with live-boot parameter "password"
I now religiously use MX Live USB maker, but sadly, looks like I didn't at that time. This explains it then :)
fehlix wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 10:05 am
or use the hack with init=/bin/bash boot parameter together with changing "ro" to "rw"
I saw guides on internet about changing "ro" to "rw", will go this route, seems easy enough, now that I know this is viable route. Thank you again!