Decaflon

Did he send it to Apple or to someone else?

Found here:

If you have lost the install disc, don't try and use one from an earlier version as this might permanently block you out of your account. You really have two options: Firstly, you could buy a new copy of Mac OS X (try eBay). Secondly, there is a way of resetting an administrator password without the disc if you are running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Note: Do NOT do this with a FileVault protected account, or your data will be lost forever.

First, note the short name of the account. This is the same as the name of its home folder, but not necessarily the name that appears in the login window. Restart your computer, and while it is starting up, hold Command-S. This will start up your Mac in Single User Mode. Once it has started up, you will need to enter three lines of code. Enter sh /etc/rc and press return. Then enter passwd yourusername and hit return. Now you will have to enter a new password twice. What you type won't appear on screen, but it is working. Once you have done this, type reboot and hit return.

This is the same as the Install Disc method in that it doesn't reset your Keychain password. You will have to do this separately.

Thanks Erin... that worked!

I actually found the same info on TUAW about 4 seconds ago and it worked flawlessly.

Makes me a bit uneasy that you can gain admin access in 3 seconds but it's what I needed.

Thanks!

ErinR and RightOn have mad haxx0rz skillz yo!

Sure felt like it running this laptop in Command Line :)

Gotta love the back door

Oh boy, I'm trying so hard not to make a dirty joke...

Glad you got it working, RightOn!

Yeah yeah, back door HAR HAR ;)

I'm so funny!

ok so I ran system update to get 10.4.9 and guess what...

the computer boots into command line with

etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory

so now I have to reinstall my OS.

Guess who only has a copy on .dmg due to the recent theft of my ACTUAL system CD's!

ARGH!!!!! Anyone know if you can burn OS X disks from Windows? Otherwise... I'm screwed.

Deleting etc/master.passwd wasn't a particularly good strategy to update the OS. You are hereby banished from the command-line and stripped of your haxx0rz title.

Kidding aside, what about doing:

hdiutil convert cdimage.dmg -format UDTO -o cdimage.iso

on your linux box? I trust that you do have a linux box? If not, what about the win binary of dmg2iso or MagicISO?

Assuming you didn't do anything strange with the dmg file, the resulting iso file should be bootable. It is also worth noting that daemon tools will mount a dmg file in windows and you should be able to just drag the contents into a nero window and burn it. The 'problems' of burning mac boot disks under windows are a thing of the OS 9 era (think: resource forks and what not).

If it is a modern iBook, just wait 4 days and do a fresh install of 10.5.

NB: If anyone wants to apologize for calling me a spammer, I'm all ears.

I have a boot image on my 4G iPod so I just have to find the Firewire cable in my mess of boxes from the move and I SHOULD be all set... if not I will be checking out those window tools and trying that.

It's a G4 iBook BTW.

Thanks!

so what do you do if it says

/etc/master.passwd: permisson denied

because it's pissing me off

appreciate an answer thanks