I was asked recently how to reset an Administrator's password in OS 10.5 without the reinstall disks. Here's how you do it:
First things first...log in to a command prompt in single user mode by holding Command + S when the computer is starting up.
At the prompt, type this followed by Return: mount -uw /
Type this: launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
Press Return
Type this, then press Return: ls /Users
Look at the listing and note the short name (username) of the affected user account.
Type this: dscl . -delete /Users/username AuthenticationAuthorityNote: Replace "username" with the affected user account's short name you noted above.
Press Return
Type this, followed by Return: passwd usernameNote: Replace "username" with the affected user account's short name you noted above.
At the "New password:" prompt, type the user's password, then Return. Note: It is recommended that the original user's password be used to match the keychain password.
At the "Retype new password" prompt, type the same password, followed by Return.
Type this, followed by Return: reboot
Hope this helps!
Jay - Head Geek In Charge
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3 comments:
Here's the link to Apple's forum on the same matter:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1543?viewlocale=en_US
you might run into permission issues if you do it that way. an easy and more user friendly is boot to a 10.3 10.4 or 10.5 disk. i recommend booting to a 10.5 disk because there is an option to reset the ACL's.
1. put the dvd and shutdown your computer
2. restart the computer and hold down the "C" key till the spinning cog shows up.
3. it will take a bit to load. once it loads choose and language
4. Go up to utilities and click on reset password
5. click on your hard drive and just under that there is a drop down menu with users. choose the user you forgot the password for.
6. type in a new password and click reset ACL. (access control list)
7. ALMOST DONE. restart the computer.
8. once you have logged in go to the users home folder /library/keychains
9. delete the keychain file in the folder and you are done.
no need to boot in to single user mode. this way users have a nice GUI interact with rather then a command line and you have less chance of permission issues.
Yeah...the OS DVD is the easier and more preferable way to do it, but the opening sentence of the first post does say that this is a way to do it WITHOUT the OS disk.
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