Password recovery in Unbutu .

Well, I bought a nice IBM computer with Unbutu installed. Unfortunately its password protected and I cant get past the sign in screen.
Actually, now I cant even get there. I did my best to navigate the settings trying to find the "Grub Menu" and none appeared. Just endless prompts and settings. Now I cant even get to the home screen. Right now when I boot up the computer I get a banner reading:

"Booting from network device...
System security: User password required.
Type your password, then press Enter.

Soooo how bad did I screw this up?

Thanks in advance!

Hi

Sounds like you have changed the boot order in BIOS and it is trying to boot from a probably non-existent network device.
Need to get back into BIOS (F2 or Delete most common keys to press immediately you start the machine) and change boot order to CD, HDD, then whatever is left

Regards the installed version of Ubuntu.
Presumably you want to run Linuxcnc and whatever version of Ubuntu is installed, Linuxcnc is not.
The easiest thing will be to download the iso of the Live CD and install it over the current install of Ubuntu.

As IBM have not made any computers for some while, it is likely an old one, if it has a single core processor try the 8.04 based CD, if multi-core the 10.04 based CD

regards

ArcEye wrote:

Hi

Sounds like you have changed the boot order in BIOS and it is trying to boot from a probably non-existent network device.
Need to get back into BIOS (F2 or Delete most common keys to press immediately you start the machine) and change boot order to CD, HDD, then whatever is left

Regards the installed version of Ubuntu.
Presumably you want to run Linuxcnc and whatever version of Ubuntu is installed, Linuxcnc is not.
The easiest thing will be to download the iso of the Live CD and install it over the current install of Ubuntu.

As IBM have not made any computers for some while, it is likely an old one, if it has a single core processor try the 8.04 based CD, if multi-core the 10.04 based CD

regards

Ah, thank you so much for the info. I went ahead and checked out the 8.04 download page but there's a huge list of possible compatible versions. Im a little unsure as to which to use. .

As it turns out I ended up with a desktop server for $10 (YEAH!). When I booted it up and went monkey-with-a-rock on the thing I did see that it was running 11.04, but maybe through the gigibit Ethernet connection?


-Processor: Intel Pentium 4 530 3 GHz with Hyper Threading
- Memory: 512MB (installed) / 4 GB (max)
-Hard Drive: 80 GB
- Integrated Features: CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo, 3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy
-Controller: Intel Extreme Graphics 2 (with Intel 865GV Chipset)

--Side note: WIll this configuration give me the low latency required to get the best out of LinuxCNC?

WIth the myriad of versions out there, which woud give me the best performance with LinuxCNC?

IM sorry about the extreme noob questions but im absorbing as much as I can. I just want to move to away from Mach3 and all its limitations.

Thank you so much for the information.I feel like im a step away from getting this machine up and running.

Link to the computer in question:
www.superwarehouse.com/IBM_ThinkCentre_M...143/814328U/p/483707

I went ahead and checked out the 8.04 download page but there's a huge list of possible compatible versions. Im a little unsure as to which to use. .

There are no choices, you are looking in the wrong place.

You need to download the Linuxcnc Live CD from the home page of this site. Choose the one which is based on the Ubuntu 8.04 distribution. That is where the similarity with Ubuntu ends.

As it turns out I ended up with a desktop server for $10

Thankfully you don't have a server, you have a Think Centre desktop, that someone may have been using as a server.
Otherwise the RAM would likely be unsuitable at the very least.

Get the BIOS sorted so that it boots CD first then HDD, install from the Live CD and the rest of your questions should answer themselves
On the face of it the spec should be suitable, probably requires another 512MB of RAM and hyperthreading, power management etc turning off in BIOS - we shall find out

Some reading for you
www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/forum...-the-latency-problem
www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/forum...me-latency-solutions


regards

Unfortunately there is nowhere in the bios to change the boot location. Actually, none of what I see is in any of the tutorials ive read.

forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/1011579-ho...-boot-order-ibm.html