GRUB badly broken during upgrade

[Kevin O'Gorman]

On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 4:20 PM, Kevin O'Gorman <kogorman at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 4:08 PM, Tom H <tomh0665 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 6:53 PM, Kevin O'Gorman <kogorman at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Update: I researched GRUB a little. I can now get the grub rescue to
>>> restore its 'normal' module, and boot a rescue kernel, which I can get
>>> into a root console session of the just-upgraded Ubuntu.
>>> NOTE: here's where I'm really glad I give root a password.  The kernel
>>> requires a root password for this to work.
>>
>> Please don't pollute the list with nonsense regarding single user mode
>> and enabling root in Ubuntu (for the second time).
>>
>> You're being prompted for root's password because you've enabled root.
>> If root's password's locked, you get a root prompt directly.
>
> If that's true, it's new and news to me.  I clearly remember being in
> the hell of having this capability unavailable because root had no
> password.  It was quite a while ago, but established this mind-set
> pretty firmly.  Once I get this running again -- and I'm sure a normal
> boot will work -- I'll experiment with it and maybe change my ways.
>
> I also have to say I don't understand your use of the phrase "root's
> password's locked" -- I'm not aware of locking or unlocking it, just
> of setting a password where there did not appear to be one before.

I was interested enough to try it on this laptop, and find you're
right.  Rescue mode can access root without a password, and my little
tweak actually makes it harder rather than easier.  I'll never give
root a password again, because that remembered debacle was my only
reason for doing it.

-- 
Kevin O'Gorman

programmer, n. an organism that transmutes caffeine into software.