Please help if you know linux

[Rocky5]

Hey guys im desparate for help linux has me screwed up.A woman i know has me fixing her comp.When i try to load it up Linux give me an error that says: An error occurred during the system file check.Dropping you to a shell;the system will reboot when you leave the shell. OK thats fine but they ask me for a password and the woman who owns it dont know it but at the same time doesnt wamt it formatted!! What the hells a guy to do? Is there a way to bypass the password thing without formatting? Please help,i have no clue when it comes to linux. Thanx guys.

[Xayd]

Moved to Alt OS for ya.

Xayd

[Statica]

Hmm if you've lost the root password you've pretty much given up a chance to boot with this current installation.

What is the pwd she normally uses to log in? Have u tried that?

If can, then you need to run: e2fsck -y /dev/hda to hopefully correct the errors you have on disk.

If you've lost the pwd, the best you can hope for is another installation of Linux OVER the current one as an upgrade to the existing installation, but am not too sure if it will let you reset the pwd.

[WickedLittleSlaveBoy]

hmmmmm, kinda odd that she doesn't know the root password. which distro is it?


anyway, first thing you should do is pick up a boot disk, or else grab the install CD for the distribution you're using...anything that will get a linux kernel up and running. run fsck, as Statica suggested. from there, if the filesystem damage didn't hose the /etc/passwd or the /etc/shadow, you can mount the / filesystem at /mnt or somewhere, chroot to your mount point, then run passwd...it will ask you for a new password for root, change it to whatever. type exit to exit back to the normal filesystem.

reboot, see if the system boots. if it does, try logging in as root with the password you just set.

Linux just isn't that secure if you can physically touch the box, so there's no need to reinstall.....you could also try manually editing the /etc/shadow, but it doesn't sound like you're ready for that.

a few notes:
1. if you're using an installation CD to boot the system, you might have to mount the partition before you fsck, cause fsck probably isn't on the install ram disk.

2. if for some odd reason, they've made an /etc filesystem, you'll need to mount that in order to change the password.

3. there is another way to get into a system without a password. you just have to "tell" lilo to mount the / filesystem and init=/bin/bash