[ubuntu-uk] The need for root in a rescue situation

[Colin Murphy]

I recently had a corrupt HD on my Dapper desktop system and had a prompt
thrown at me for the 'root password' by the minimal rescue system to
allow me to do fsck and stuff.

I did try the password for my Admin user but this didn't work.

I was able to get things started again because, luckily, I had an old
install of, as it happens, Mandrake 10.0 tucked away on a 2nd hard drive
and accessible via grub.  If this wasn't available I would have had a
fallback of DSL on a USB key, but I couldn't think of a Ubuntu way of
getting around this problem.

What is the approved way of working in this rescue situation without a
root password?

-- 
Must go; places to be, people to do, stuff to, err, stuff.
Colin at SpudULike.me.uk