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Can't Remember Password

H

Haberdasher

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 24, 2002
142
0
Los Angeles, CA
Ok...I'm in a string of really "good happenings" today, and right as I'm about to finish being on a roll, I have to go and forget my system password. :D

Long story short and right to the problem...this is on my second internal drive, which I never boot up from, so I've forgotten the administrator password to change things. Is there any way to figure it out? This is only the password to change things...I can log in, and I have complete access to my first drive.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.
 
Putting in the the OSX disc and then restarting while holding the c key should prompt a message allowing you to change all passwords. That should work.
 
Originally posted by dynamicd
Putting in the the OSX disc and then restarting while holding the c key should prompt a message allowing you to change all passwords. That should work.
Click to expand...

Damn that's a nice one to remember. I'll keep that handy in the future. But that's also a huge flaw in the system, isn't it?

D
 
Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
Damn that's a nice one to remember. I'll keep that handy in the future. But that's also a huge flaw in the system, isn't it?

D
Click to expand...

One would think. But consider, if there weren't a way to do this, a 3rd party would come along, and then it would be a *serious* vulnerability, better that Apple should have control. But they should make it so that you need *the* original CD that came with the computer--

pnw
 
Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
Damn that's a nice one to remember. I'll keep that handy in the future. But that's also a huge flaw in the system, isn't it?

D
Click to expand...

Not really... it means you have to have physical access to the machine in order to do it. Plus there's always a firmware password, which is practically untouchable.
 
Re: Re: Can't Remember Password

Originally posted by zimv20
did you try "tkl#4d$k9"?

what passwords _have_ you tried?
Click to expand...

Certainly not that. Who uses pound signs anymore? It's more of a 0%^io with a good old home row a;lsdfj for good measure.
 
Re: Re: Re: Can't Remember Password

Originally posted by Haberdasher
Certainly not that. Who uses pound signs anymore?
Click to expand...

well that's my point. maybe it's so old that it has the #!

(i'm glad _someone_ found it amusing :)
 
It amuses me when I see people call the # a pound sign. In my (most?) countries they are:

# Hash
£ Pound

Don't mind me, just getting a bit off topic :D
 
Originally posted by Nermal
It amuses me when I see people call the # a pound sign. In my (most?) countries they are:

# Hash
£ Pound

Don't mind me, just getting a bit off topic :D
Click to expand...

In Japan it's called the 'Sharp' sign.

Oh, about the password reset... just by booting to the CD won't help. Once you do, you have to go to the Apple menu and select 'Reset Password'.



irmongoose
 
Originally posted by Nermal
It amuses me when I see people call the # a pound sign. In my (most?) countries they are:

# Hash
£ Pound

Don't mind me, just getting a bit off topic :D
Click to expand...

Well, I'm an ignorant American, and I don't know about foreign keyboards, but on my standard American one, there is no obvious key combination to produce a pound sign...I'm sure someone will tell me very quickly how to make one, though. :D
 
Originally posted by Haberdasher
Well, I'm an ignorant American, and I don't know about foreign keyboards, but on my standard American one, there is no obvious key combination to produce a pound sign...I'm sure someone will tell me very quickly how to make one, though. :D
Click to expand...

I'm guessing its alt 3 as that is the way us UK ppl make # signs where the £ is visible on above the 3 key. As for # being sharp thats also what it means in musical notation. F# Fb or just F for example.
 
Originally posted by amnesiac1984
I'm guessing its alt 3 as that is the way us UK ppl make # signs where the £ is visible on above the 3 key. As for # being sharp thats also what it means in musical notation. F# Fb or just F for example.
Click to expand...

I should have guessed about the whole musical sharp thing.

Oh, and you're right. £££
 
Holding Alt/Option as you go through the numbers gives you all sorts of neat stuff :)

¡™£¢?§¶•ªº–?

Edit: Except a couple of those didn't come through and get changed to a question mark. They were the infinity symbol, and the "does not equal" symbol. By the way, that first one is not a lowercase I, it's an upside down !
 
Originally posted by dynamicd
Putting in the the OSX disc and then restarting while holding the c key should prompt a message allowing you to change all passwords. That should work.
Click to expand...


Or... Just boot into single user mode (hold down the cntrl-s while rebooting) This will drop you into single user mode. It will skip the graphics stuff and you will be at a root prompt. From there you can use the comand # 'passwd username' to change any users password
 
Originally posted by kray
Or... Just boot into single user mode (hold down the cntrl-s while rebooting) This will drop you into single user mode. It will skip the graphics stuff and you will be at a root prompt. From there you can use the comand # 'passwd username' to change any users password
Click to expand...

Elaborate on this...sounds sneaky. :D
 
Originally posted by Haberdasher
Elaborate on this...sounds sneaky. :D
Click to expand...

Not at all sneaky. This owes to osx's bsd roots. In freebsd (or just about any other 'nix, I can think of), you boot into single user mode from the boot prompt by typing 'boot -s', osx gives you this option with the key combination of 'apple- or propellar- (or whatever that key is called) s.

Any UNIX machine can boot into single user mode (which by definition gives you root access). It is for this reason that the first rule of security is to control physical access to the machine.
 
Originally posted by kray
Not at all sneaky. This owes to osx's bsd roots. In freebsd (or just about any other 'nix, I can think of), you boot into single user mode from the boot prompt by typing 'boot -s', osx gives you this option with the key combination of 'apple- or propellar- (or whatever that key is called) s.

Any UNIX machine can boot into single user mode (which by definition gives you root access). It is for this reason that the first rule of security is to control physical access to the machine.
Click to expand...

Ok, I can boot into single user mode, and I know the smallest bit about navigating folders and listing stuff in the terminal, so i thought it was a pretty neat feature. When I try to get the "passwd" function to work though, I'm having some trouble understanding it.

I realize you're supposed to use passwd User Name, but then it give me this list of options...I then typed passwd [location of password file] [new password], but I don't think it worked. Am I supposed to put something else in the last field? Am I supposed to have 3 fields like the confusing help diagram in the terminal suggests?

Any help?
 
Personally

# = Pound Key (On Phone), Sharp (When Doing Music), Number Sign (Most Other Times)
£ = British Pound, or Dollar Pound

Also Don't Forget
$ = Dollar Sign (For Many), Money Sign (For Others)
Don't even make me drag out the arguments over 2 lines or 1.

& = Ampersand (Most Americans Don't know that), And Sign (What Most Americans call it)

* = Astrisk (Normal Name), Star (With Computers)

Any Others

TEG
 
Originally posted by Haberdasher
I realize you're supposed to use passwd User Name,

from the root promt '#' you would type 'passwd user_name'

then you will be asked for a new password, so type 'new_password'

then you will be asked to confirm the new password, so type it again. If you didn't make any typos and the two passwords match. You will get the message that your password has been changed... that's it. There should not be any junk about location fo password files.

but then it give me this list of options...I then typed passwd [location of password file] [new password], but I don't think it worked. Am I supposed to put something else in the last field? Am I supposed to have 3 fields like the confusing help diagram in the terminal suggests?

The only other thing that I can think of is that you may need to mount a partition or two with the comand 'mount' e.g. 'mount /etc'

Any help?
Click to expand...

It was quite a while ago that I helped someone else do this (they forgot their password too) and I seem to remember that there was a message or two as you boot into single user mode. Just follow the directions. Single user mode on osx may not automatically mount all the needed partitions (explanation... if the command 'passwd' is not located on the mount point that osx brings up by itself in single user mode, then you will have to mount it yourself, otherwise the command will not be understood by the system)...

After you pull this off check out a unix for osx book. Oreilly probably published a few...
 
of course if OS X were a GOOD OS

Of course, if OS X were an actual decent OS you would never have to use a password at all.

Remember the good old days? Before the Mac OS became a shell on top of Unix?


I would like to turn my computer on and use it without EVER having to:

log in
go to a CLI.


OS X is a giant step backwards in useability. But everyone keeps telling me it's necessary for Apple to survive.

I just want to turn my computer on and use it and never log in as long as I live

But Apple - who control the hardware AND the software - decided to go to a third party outdated primitive OS like Unix for their modern computers.

This is a really bad sign...what's next - an advance to punch cards?
 
Re: of course if OS X were a GOOD OS

Originally posted by favedave
Of course, if OS X were an actual decent OS you would never have to use a password at all.

Remember the good old days? Before the Mac OS became a shell on top of Unix?


I would like to turn my computer on and use it without EVER having to:

log in
go to a CLI.


OS X is a giant step backwards in useability. But everyone keeps telling me it's necessary for Apple to survive.

I just want to turn my computer on and use it and never log in as long as I live

But Apple - who control the hardware AND the software - decided to go to a third party outdated primitive OS like Unix for their modern computers.

This is a really bad sign...what's next - an advance to punch cards?
Click to expand...

In the System Preferences>Users panel, you could set it to automatically login to a specific account...

And the good old days with no passwords are gone because viruses and hackers are becoming more and more obnoxious so that unless you don't have a secure system like OS X which requires you to type in a password at only critical moments and no more, it would be like leaving the front door open in a gangster neighborhood.



irmongoose
 
Re: Re: of course if OS X were a GOOD OS

Originally posted by irmongoose
In the System Preferences>Users panel, you could set it to automatically login to a specific account...

And the good old days with no passwords are gone because viruses and hackers are becoming more and more obnoxious so that unless you don't have a secure system like OS X which requires you to type in a password at only critical moments and no more, it would be like leaving the front door open in a gangster neighborhood.



irmongoose
Click to expand...

Exactly. Besides, the password I had to fix was not a login password, as I have automated login like was mentioned above. This was an administrator password I don't use much, but protects my computer if someone I didn't want changing things came in and started doing so.
 
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