Yah.. 'twas the shadow file, not passwd.. But you can also skin your cat like this also.. [looks safer]

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/reset-your-ubuntu-password-easily-from-the-live-cd/

 :-)

2009/8/24 nick muttai <nmuttai@gmail.com>
Get a live CD, run it and then edit /etc/shadow

gksudo gedit /etc/shadow

Look for your username, it will look something like this: (xxxxxx)

pulse:*:13991:0:99999:7:::
messagebus:*:13991:0:99999:7:::
avahi:*:13991:0:99999:7:::
polkituser:*:13991:0:99999:7:::
haldaemon:*:13991:0:99999:7:::
xxxxxx:
$1$r6e0NL0V$UZpoM8mqXuJHX44refu2q/:14081:0:99999:7:::
sshd:*:14089:0:99999:7:::
rancid:$1$ff8wYmnG$ir9J01rV7B.wNW6DW2zb2.:14182:0:99999:7:::


Delete the hashed password leaving the 2 semi-colons.
Save the file and boot your Ubuntu, the user will have no password, so you can reset it.
You can do the same for root.
Alternatively, boot into single user mode and edit the same file using vi.

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Joshua Mwendwa <jtmwendwa@gmail.com> wrote:
@Alex .With a stolen one, formatting would be the best option. mine is on a desktop.


On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 3:45 PM, Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
I lost my Ubuntu laptop recently, hope you are not trying to hack into
it :(  on a light note....

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Joshua Mwendwa<jtmwendwa@gmail.com> wrote:
> Good People,
>
> I forgot my Ubuntu login Username and Password.Any ideas of how to recover
> them?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
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