Need help with 10.2 Password Reset

[herzograven]

i have a collegue who is still running 10.2 (yea i know, time to upgrade, but they haven't felt the need for it yet i guess)

anyway, someone changed and forgot, or someone did it to be a jerk, either way they are unable to update any software or even log in

just wondering if anyone has any ideas or suggestions on how to rest the password

the computer is stuck on the log in screen currently and they can't access anything

any help would be greatly appreciate it

 

[Morod]

Wow, bad luck dude!
Tell your colleague to write down his p/w next time.
Unless, of course, the Mac was obtained through nefarious means....

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

You can reset it by booting up from the system DVD.

OR:

Start up in single mode and do the following:

If you don't have enough time or simply want to create an easy, visible admin account, use the following steps. This has been known to work on all versions of Mac OS X.

The initial System Setup wizard that runs when your Macintosh has had a fresh install creates an Administrator account by default. Since that is all that this utility does, we can force the utility to run again and create a brand new account.

1. Enter single user mode (see above). Once in single user mode, check the filesystem and mount the hard drive.

fsck -y

mount -uaw /

2. All we need to do now is remove a flag file from the system

rm -rf /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

3. Now reboot

reboot

Upon reboot, your machine will run through the system setup wizard. Note that if you are trying to be inconspicuous, you may want to turn down the volume or plug in headphones."

 

[BlueRevolution]

Wow, bad luck dude!
Tell your colleague to write down his p/w next time.
Unless, of course, the Mac was obtained through nefarious means....

If you actually read the post, you will see that the password was changed by someone other than the owner without their knowledge or consent. There's no need for accusations of theft.

I'm afraid I can't help you with the password reset, though.

 

[Morod]

If you actually read the post, you will see that the password was changed by someone other than the owner without their knowledge or consent. There's no need for accusations of theft.

I'm afraid I can't help you with the password reset, though.

Sorry for the accusation, Blue, as I do respect your knowledge and help on these boards.
Sorry to the OP as well. It just seemed that something smelled very fishy in the original post. To me, it seems almost impossible someone else could change my admin u/n and or p/w. And with the OS at 10.2, it seems it's been without the admin u/n or p/w for quite some time.
I rarely toss out accusations, honestly, but this one smells bad to me.
I hope I am wrong.
Morod
PS... To the OP: I cannot offer any help either.

 

[herzograven]

You can reset it by booting up from the system DVD.

OR:

Start up in single mode and do the following:

If you actually read the post, you will see that the password was changed by someone other than the owner without their knowledge or consent. There's no need for accusations of theft.

I'm afraid I can't help you with the password reset, though.

thank you both for your help, greatly appreciated

Sorry for the accusation, Blue, as I do respect your knowledge and help on these boards.
Sorry to the OP as well. It just seemed that something smelled very fishy in the original post. To me, it seems almost impossible someone else could change my admin u/n and or p/w. And with the OS at 10.2, it seems it's been without the admin u/n or p/w for quite some time.
I rarely toss out accusations, honestly, but this one smells bad to me.
I hope I am wrong.
Morod
PS... To the OP: I cannot offer any help either.

well the deal is that this computer wasn't used on a daily basis in their household (hence why it's still running 10.2) and one of their family members passed away in feb. of this year, so i'm guessing either they had set the password or something of that nature - beyond that i have no idea what else happened or went on with the machine since i first saw it when i set it up in 2005, and then just saw it again when this problem came up

if you were implying that the machine was stolen or the OS was pirated, it's not, which is why it's still running 10.2 and it's a G3 iMac - not exactly latest and greatest hardware even by 2005 standards

 

[terramir]

you can reset the master password by using the mac install disks, however you may or may not lose some data in the process. I found my emac in the trash a few days ago and apple is actually sending my new install disks free of charge
so if you got the install disks laying around you can reset the password and well instructions are right here
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1274 you gotta scroll down a bit but what you need is the install disk and hold down C while booting
hope this helps
terramir

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

you may or may not lose some data in the process

If you have Filevault active, you won't be able to unlock your data, your account will just be reset and your old account .sparsebundle archived.

 

[Morod]

well the deal is that this computer wasn't used on a daily basis in their household (hence why it's still running 10.2) and one of their family members passed away in feb. of this year, so i'm guessing either they had set the password or something of that nature - beyond that i have no idea what else happened or went on with the machine since i first saw it when i set it up in 2005, and then just saw it again when this problem came up

if you were implying that the machine was stolen or the OS was pirated, it's not, which is why it's still running 10.2 and it's a G3 iMac - not exactly latest and greatest hardware even by 2005 standards

My most sincere apologies, herzograven! I am sorry to hear of your troubles and am glad you are finding help to fix the problem. Forgive me, please.

 

[herzograven]

you can reset the master password by using the mac install disks, however you may or may not lose some data in the process. I found my emac in the trash a few days ago and apple is actually sending my new install disks free of charge
so if you got the install disks laying around you can reset the password and well instructions are right here
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1274 you gotta scroll down a bit but what you need is the install disk and hold down C while booting
hope this helps
terramir

thanks a lot, they do have their install disks, so i'll try that first
also, i tried doing everything on that page you just liked but that didn't help so far, i'll try again later in the week

thx again

PS: "I found my emac in the trash a few days ago and apple is actually sending my new install disks free of charge"
that's because apple is kickass and that's why we love em

 

[herzograven]

If you have Filevault active, you won't be able to unlock your data, your account will just be reset and your old account .sparsebundle archived.

like i said, i have no clue what is or isn't on that machine, but based on how infrequently that machine was used, i doubt filevault would be active

thx for the help

 

[herzograven]

My most sincere apologies, herzograven! I am sorry to hear of your troubles and am glad you are finding help to fix the problem. Forgive me, please.

it's no big deal, no need to apologize, i just mentioned that the machine/OS wasn't stolen cause i didn't want to get in trouble for something down the line just for trying to help someone out - now the key is to be able to help them out