It's no secret. I had a series of "issues" with my Apple G4 Powerbook just before I left on vacation. One of the last acts in this techno-play was when Jerry offered to work with my powerbook to get me on the UEN wireless network. He asked me to change my user password. I did that while standing at his desk. It was also in this conversation that I realized my problem was due to a bad date. I believe my powerbook was set for some time in April 1976.

Well, changing to the current date solved my problem and I went along on my merry way. Forward to last night. I had used my iPod for evening entertainment while camping last week. I also picked up a new CD while in Idaho so last night I imported it and updated my iPod. Through some typical techno-experimenting I caused myself some problems with the iPod and couldn't eject it. So I decided to restart the computer. Oooops!

I realized just after I pushed the restart button that I'd changed my password. I also realized that I wasn't sure about that new password. Anxiously I waited for the login screen to appear. And I tried what I thought was the right password. Jitter. Jitter. Jitter. I'd forgotten.

I tried many dozen variations. Nothing worked. I woke up in the middle of the night and tried again, still with no results. I couldn't stop thinking about being locked out of my powerbook. So I logged onto the web (thankfully I still had a working windows box) and started a search. It took me a while to find what I was looking for. At least I knew enough to search for "single user mode" and other variations.

You see, I realized that there was an easy way to change my password. I could just call Troy and he could walk me through accessing single user mode and resetting my user and root passwords. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to have access to my computer and I wanted to know more about its inner workings. After all, it's more than DOS.

I really want/need to get more involved in Unix. I've asked Troy to help me set up a Red Hat box. Last night gave me a taste. I found a site that provided some detail about the single user mode and another page that got right to the details of changing my user account password. All together it took me less than 30 minutes to find what I needed, change my password and get back into my powerbook. For an added bonus I was able to get some rest after that.

This whole experience has increased my interest in learning Linux. It also reinforced a valuable lesson about remembering my password. There is that fine line between creating a password that is hard to crack and making one that is somewhat easy to remember. This also further shows just how vulnerable we all are. Good passwords don't matter when there is a big security hole like single user mode........
5:02:12 AM    comment []