Finding a Password with the terminal

[danielfolsom]

My wife of 84 recently bought me a brand new PowerBook G4 for my birthday. She had suprised me with it when I came home from the doctors - and she had already set it up and everything. I have been using the machine very frequently, however just yesterday I tried to download BBText Editor, and it prompted me for a password. I asked my wife what she had set it as, and sadly, she she had forgotten. I would like to know if there is anyway I can find this password by using the terminal. All help is appreciated - and thank you.

 

[Ric]

Hi there and welcome,

the easiest way is to pop the Install DVD back in and reboot holding down the c key...then when it boots do not reinstall, just go to the menu bar and select password reset.

This will allow you to change the admin password without knowing the original one.

regards

Ric

 

[danielfolsom]

Hi there and welcome,

the easiest way is to pop the Install DVD back in and reboot holding down the c key...then when it boots do not reinstall, just go to the menu bar and select password reset.

This will allow you to change the admin password without knowing the original one.

regards

Ric

Thanks for your help, but is there any way of knowing the original? My wife had done our usual password, which we use on multiple websites and the email ... and if neither of us can remember it, it would be a great amount of trouble to go through each website and find it again...

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

if you have forgotton your password on any websites, most of them have an automated way of retreival...so go on to one of the websites and find the lost password link. This should then email you back your password.

If you always use the same one then this should help...

If not you are going to need a crash course in UNIX and you are going to need an application such as 'John the Ripper' this will enable you to decrypt the password file on your Mac so that you can see what it was...although it seems like a lot of effort when you can just stick in the install disk to reset...

regards

Ric