Locked out of Linux!

[moejoe125]

I've just installed Suse Linux 10.2 on my laptop, (it now has Suse and Vista Home Premium).

I went through the installation process for Suse 10.2 just fine, nothing went wrong, it finished installation and hardware configuration all successfully (it was a pleasant surprise!)

However, as I was going through the installation process and got to the part where it asks you for the username and password to login, I left these fields blank (because I dont want to have to enter a username and password each time I log into Suse!) I just dont need the security feature of a login screen, I just want it to load the OS automatically after I have selected it from the dual-boot screen!

Now when I load Suse 10.2, It's asking me for the username and password!!!!

(I entered the root password, which I have, I tried entering this into the login screen but it just keeps saying "Login Failed")

So now I have a freshly installed OS which I cannot log in to!!!

Can anyone help me out with this please?

P.S. This is the first time I install Suse Linux, but i've used this OS quite abit.

[nightsky]

Not to worry, no biggy. I don't know Suse but usually if you lock yourself out just boot in with the install disk and if its anything like slackware when u first boot up u just hit enter. You exit setup and you should be in because it thinks your are installing... create an id and password then set your init.rc 4 ... set your initializing runlevel to 4 ... don't think you hurt anything this is pretty close to what u have to do if its not exactly. BTW I don't think you can run linux w/o one passwrd.

[moejoe125]

Originally Posted by nightsky Not to worry, no biggy. I don't know Suse but usually if you lock yourself out just boot in with the install disk and if its anything like slackware when u first boot up u just hit enter. You exit setup and you should be in because it thinks your are installing... create an id and password then set your init.rc 4 ... set your initializing runlevel to 4 ... don't think you hurt anything this is pretty close to what u have to do if its not exactly. BTW I don't think you can run linux w/o one passwrd.

Yea I tried that, I entered into installation process again and if I proceed through, it wants to repartition the drive again! so i just aborted the installation process and it just reboots the system and goes back to the installation menu again, basically its just looping around each time.

and if i try to load the OS it presents me with the log-in screen!

[nightsky]

Try again with the boot disk.
boot:linux single, press enter, at the next prompt, type passwd root, This prompts u for a new root password. Type in a new password and write it down. Now type shutdown -r now. when u srestart, your hopefully able to use your new root password.

Still not in look thru Suse faq. I don't have suse or linux on a laptop but don't panic suse is supposed to be easier than Slackware and I am certain there is a way around this.

[kilgoretrout]

nightsky, read the first post - he has a root password and knows what it is so he doesn't need to reset it. moejoe, unless you need to reset your root password, ignore nightsky's post.

Here's your problem. Unless you want to run as root all the time(not advisable), you need to set up a non-root user. The linux security model operates on the principle of least privilege - i.e. you have non-root or non-admin users that only have the powers and privileges they need to do what is necessary. Windows is slowly moving toward this security model as well in vista but can't really do it because of all the legacy software out there that demands admin privileges in order to operate.

Unfortunately, you never created an ordinary non-root user. Your concerns about having to login all the time are misplaced. Once you get everything setup for your ordinary user, you can configure the system to autologin that user if you want.

Now for correcting the problem. You need to create an ordinary user. Since you don't have much invested in your installation, you can just redo your installation if you want but create a non-root user with a password this time. That's probably the easiest solution at this point. The alternative is to login as root and create an ordinary user from within your root account. However, root logins are usually disabled from the gui login screen but you can try that if you want. I can tell you how to boot to a command prompt, login as root in a command line environment and tell you what commands to run from the command prompt to setup an ordinary user but I really don't think that's the easiest solution for you.

[Larix8]

Kilgoretrout......thanks for the post, I have a buddy of mine with a similar problem only he is using Ubuntu. I am going to try what you said using Ubuntu.

[kilgoretrout]

Ubuntu is a little different than most linux distros as it doesn't set up a root account by default. Instead, you set up an ordinary user with a username and password. To run any commands that you would normally have to be root to run, you type "sudo" first followed by the command you want to run. You are then prompted for your user password which must be entered before the command will run.
This accomplishes the same thing as a separate root/admin account, i.e. admin privileges are only given when specifically requested and a password is needed to obtain admin privileges. Your normal user is not running with admin privileges all the time. This is similar to the way Macs currently work and it was thought to be less confusing for people coming to linux for the first time.
At any rate, even with ubuntu you have to set up a user account. I haven't run ubuntu for some time but I am sure you can also configure ubuntu to autologin a user if you want. Check over on the ubuntu forums for details if that's what you want to do.