Best solution for silly error?

[GaryTaig]

On 26/07/14 05:50, Robert Heller wrote:

> At Sat, 26 Jul 2014 05:09:01 +1000 taig at melbpc.org.au,         "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid
>>
>> Initially I ran with one user, with admin privileges etc. Since I always
>> had to enter the main admin password to authenticate some  activities I
>> was of the belief that I was generally NOT operating as ROOT.
>>
>> (Please, if someone writes, "yes, that was correct" I'll breathe a big
>> sigh of relief.)
[BIG SNIP]

> This what they make 'rescue' disks for and/or single user mode (depending on
> your distro, some systems can be booted into SI without entering a password).
> In some cases it is possible to use the kernel 'init=' parameter when booting
> -- eg 'init=/bin/bash' which will run bash instead of init: "crude but
> effective".
>
> A rescue disk will boot up and (possibly) mount the local file systems and
> leave you with a shell running as root. Yes dangerious, but this is only for
> emergency use and no, you generally don't have the network up.
>
> At that point, you can repair any 'damage' at that point, from dealing with
> fried disks to lost crtitical files or lost passwords.

Many thanks, Robert.
I have a solution from Colin Law and that one reads fairly 
straightforward. Will revert to this one if I can't make it work.
Much appreciated
GT