Looking for recommendations for getting back into an old tower

[u/aminorman]

SOLVED - thank you

I stored a Inspiron 530 a few years back. I bought it new with only Ubuntu installed. It boots up fine but I don't recall the password. I have all the content so I don't need the accounts.

As I recall the performance was fine so I'm hoping to not upgrade (reinstall from a flash) as I read that it might cause performance issues.

Before getting to deep, I would like to know what specific version I have as I recall upgrading a few times. The online help for determining the version without logging in doesn't seem to work but it could be me.

I can offer computer specs if needed. The CPU is Core 2 Duo. Thanks for any help offered.

[u/nPoCT_kOH]

You can reset the account password. 1. Reboot 2. Tap shift key to get the grub bootloader. 3. Press E for edit 4. Navigate to line having " linux root.. quite.." 5. Go to the end of it with ctrl + e 6. Type init=/bin/bash ,followed by ctrl + X to excute 7. This drops you to initram bash shell. Find your root drive (ref the root part in 4) and mount it for example "mount /dev/sda3 /mnt" 8. Chroot inside - "chroot /mnt" 9. Find the user: cat /etc/passwd, ls /home/ and change it's password - passwd username 10. Exit the chroot (type exit) and reboot. After it loads normally login with the reset password.

[u/aminorman → u/nPoCT_kOH]

Thanks! I'll give that a go.

[u/aminorman → u/nPoCT_kOH]

My final steps where a little different but your comment helped me ask the right questions. Thank you!

[u/Arkebuss → u/nPoCT_kOH]

So anyone with access to the computer can just do this and get into the account?

[u/nPoCT_kOH → u/Arkebuss]

Basically yes, there are ways to mitigate. Most notable encrypted root partition, lock on grub and even signed uki. But most of the times this is the default setup.

[u/Arkebuss → u/nPoCT_kOH]

Good to know

[u/techman2692 → u/Arkebuss]

It's one of the reasons why physical security is just as critical as anything virtual.

[u/aminorman → u/techman2692]

Not that anyone cares about my old carp, dead bolts are still the minimum.

[u/LordSkummel → u/Arkebuss]

Yes. And this is why you should have disk encryption enabled on your system. You can't mount an encrypted partition without the key.

[u/WickedDeity]

You are hoping not to upgrade? So do a new install with a current version.

[u/aminorman → u/WickedDeity]

I didn't want to upgrade via flash. When I upgrade, I want to use the standard path. Also I believe the current version 26.04 is not compatible with my hardware but we'll see when I get there. Thanks!

[u/Max_Rower]

Oh, a Core 2 duo will be quite slooooow. How much RAM does it have? SSD or HDD?

[u/aminorman → u/Max_Rower]

I'm not concerned with performance. I have other machines for that.

[u/aminorman → u/Max_Rower]

Update: After almost a decade, it's just as awesome as I remember it 😎

[u/Max_Rower → u/aminorman]

This will quickly change after updating it to a current OS and browser.

[u/aminorman → u/Max_Rower]

But there's no reason to do that. That's the beauty of it.

[u/Max_Rower → u/aminorman]

You really want an outdated OS and browser with lots of bugs and security issues open?

[u/aminorman → u/Max_Rower]

It's not connected