login password no longer accepted

I’ve been running oSUSE 12.1 KDE 64 bit on a desktop w/ a Gigabyte X58 MB and an i7 and almost everything has been working quite well.

I usually suspend at the end of the day but yesterday, the system rebooted on turning it back on and a disc from another linux distro I had wanted to look at (Mint LMDE) loaded, which I later installed alongside oSUSE (on what had been a windows partition of a different hard drive). unfortunately, I can boot to either now but neither will load because my login password is rejected in both cases.

Maybe I shouldn’t have installed LMDE but I did and now all I can do is post here to ask whether the oSUSE login password problem can be resolved by eliminating or modifying a configuration file (using a recuperation disk) or whether I have to reinstall, or …?

Any constructive advice will be appreciated.

TIA

Try this solution…

SDB:Recover root password - openSUSE

Did you only loose your normal user password, or also the root’s one. When you can still log in as root (from the console at Ctrl-Alt-F1) you can then change the users password (using the passwd command). When the root password also is lost then use a method as @ionmich shows you.

But it is not normal that you loose a password of system A by installing system B on a different disk (partition). The passwords are stored within the /etc directory which is normaly in your root partition. Thus as long as you do not touch it, everything should be OK.

That looks promising.

This solution requires using an OpenSUSE CD and suggests that “an OpenSUSE install CD is probably the best one to use”.

I have both that and the NET install disk, which is what I used to install my system initially and I would be inclined to use the latter instead, unless the 12.1 install cd (which comes in separate versions for gnome and kde) is preferably for some reason I ignore at present. Any opinion?

On choosing Open SUSE form the Mint LMDE Boot Menu I get:

“Welcome to Emergency Mode” Then, “Give root password for login”.

However: I used the same password for both, so I don’t know the password is being rejected.

On 2012-05-13 21:26, d hinds wrote:
> Any opinion?

Any live system will do.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

1.- I found a post from a week ago stating that LMDE is missing a symbolic link that makes it impossible to boot btrfs partitions. It mentioned a way to install what is missing but it would not work for me because (it said) the fs is write only. So I reinstalled LMDE to the same partition, but changed the file format to ext4, which allowed me to boot the OS, but not oSUSE 12.1, since the oSUSE bootloader had been replaced by LMDE’s, and is still unable to boot to btrfs partitions. (LMDE is a zippy if incomplete system and worse, not a single response came in re this problem, on their forum).

2.- The Recovery didn’t work either because I was asked for a password for something else the Recovery wanted to recover (not oSUSE 12.1 KDE 64 bit).

So I’m doing an UPDATE to the whole (right) system, something the NET Install disk can do. Nothing is being removed, but 1.9 Gb of files are being updated. I also downloaded and burned the most recent NET Install iso to disk (which may have been unnecessary since the downloads are going to be the latest versions anyway, I assume).

75% is done so the update shouldn’t take much more (only 300 mb are left).

Thanks to all for the help. Overall, oSUSE is clearly the best option around (as far as I’m concerned) for overall stability, functionality, reliability, alternative content and support (at least among the noncommercial distros).

Unfortunately, oSUSE is still not booting, however. I may have to do a new installation.

I am also considering changing to Tumbleweed (the semi-rolling version of oSUSE). Opinions?

One thing I am considering doing however is changing to Tumbleweed. Opinions?

Tumbleweed:
I didn’t use it at first. But over the last 6 months I have tested it ( I have also Used LMDE) and IMO Tumbleweed is more stable.

Thanks - I will definitely give it a try.

But first I’ll have to resolve the boot problem. I need a way to repair the boot manager w/o having to do a complete install.

Also, I understand 12.2 will use Grub2. That should help resolve the conflicts that occur frequently between oSUSE and distros that use that rather than
Grub. Is there a way to install it now?

TIA

Yes 12.2 will use grub2

For 12.1
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/other-forums/development/programming-scripting/471413-installing-grub2-updategrub2.html#post2457646

Yep. Boot from a LiveCD. Then take over the installed system and configure grub2.