How To Change Password In Ubuntu 7.04 PC Edition (with Dual Boot Win XP Pro)

This assumes you have a dual boot with Ubuntu 7.04 and Windows XP Pro. This is a great guide.

Boot up the PC and at the screen to select the OS (assuming you have edited the grub to automate the daul boot)

Select the option Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode) or equivalent

Press “e” to edit the commands

The next screen displays three lines as below

root (hd0,6) or equivalent
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic ………….. ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic

Select the second line (starting kernel /boot/vmlinuz …..) and select “e” to edit

This takes you to the end of the line. After ro single type rw init=/bin/bash and press Enter

Then press “b” to boot into the shell. NOTE: You are now logged in as root, be careful with the commands issued here.

The shell looks like this

root@none:/#

At the prompt type as below to display the usernames created in Ubuntu

root@none:/#ls /home

To change the password for user named admin100 whose password you want to set as linux!kenya type as below

root@none:/#passwd admin100
Enter new UNIX password: linux!kenya
Retype new UNIX password: linux!kenya
passwd: password updated successfully ( this is displayed if all is OK)
root@(none):/#reboot (this reboots the PC)

Now login to Ubuntu with your new password.

NOTE: To change the root password while still in the shell, type as below

root@none:/#passwd root
Enter new UNIX password: !@%^&jkjkireykjavik
Retype new UNIX password: !@%^&jkjkireykjavik
passwd: password updated successfully

HTH.

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Fibre Optic Cable, Broadband, Wimax, Wi-fi

Here in Kenya, we are the last frontier in the digital divide. We are happy to say though that all is not lost in the struggle to emancipate ourselves from lack of submarine FOC to our shores. Thanks to lack of visionary planning, silly politics and big brother attitude, we are submarine FOCless. Just when we were beginning to get frustrated and snail-pace connections were killing us with hefty bills, there is a flurry of announcements. Submarine FOC is coming our way. All of a sudden we have like 3 cable laying ships competing to hook up our shores to the global digital village.

Meanwhile, in Kenya the ISPs are working very hard. We have all manner of supposed broadband, from Africa Online’s Infinet to KDNs Butterfly. The Kenyan government not being left in the zeal to connect the villages with FOC and setting up digital kiosks / centers, known as Pasha. While on cables, fiber of otherwise, Jamii Telecom is finishing its Nairobi metro fiber network. In essence if the ISPs in Nairobi were reading this (usually they don’t bother), they would have found out where I live, asked Jamii to extend the fiber from the roadside outside my house to a wiring closet at the basement, and then hooked my apartment. I in turn would terminate the connection to my secure wireless broadband router, and retire to my balcony and surf, barefoot.

I have alot of faith in the entrepreneurial skills of Kenyans, so do not disappoint me.

Of Adobe Reader 8 Reading Out Loud

So am going through my Adobe Reader 8 and I stumble upon this nifty tool that actually reads back to me a selected paragraph. Okay, the words are a bit garbled and metallic, but hey, it pays to close your eyes and let the machine voice read back text from the pdf document. Quite nice especially when tired of staring at the screen.

Great stuff Adobe. More on text to speech

Am exploring more of this text to speech stuff. There must be some syrupy voice out there who can read better.

Of Web Marketing, Google spiders and xml Maps

I have been doing some research on web marketing, SEO and other funky stuff like that. Found this great article here. I am still planning to retire to some palm tree in Tahiti, so that I can do some serious writing.

Read and create xml maps here . This is stuff is really an eye-opener, especially in areas where local content is still wanting.

Thing is I must have a couple of thousand websites generating a constant stream of income, while I write, and generate more income.

Read more from SEOmoz here

Of Ebay, domaining, site builder, clicks, adwords …..

…. or something like that. I have been trawling the Net looking for ways to make some good old cash. Lots of stuff going on out there from affiliate marketing, eBay sales that should make you some zillions, domaining (you register some $1.99 domain with a super-catchy name, some big time corporate comes around and snaps it up for some serious cash), writing for e-zines ….. etc.

Did I miss any major cash cow? Oh yer, there are site builders, and site lists, and other complex software that helps you build your shop online and sit under a palm tree in Tahiti (with a chilled cocktail) while your Paypal account balloons. Did I memtion PPC, Google adwords ….. the list is endless.

For a newbie like me, it gets complicated. I just want to sit under a tree in my village as my account balloons. I must start writing full time, else I will forever be itching.

Just a thought!

Of Brian Tracy’s “Million Dollar Habits”

Having hit writer’s block around 9pm, I was murking around when I stumbled across this e-book by Brian Tracy. Go his site.

So I got reading and got many gems. Since I am going to be fabulously rich, I needed this kind of stuff before going to bed. Some excerpts …..

“You are where you are and what you are because of yourself. Everything you are today, or ever will be in the future, is up to you. Your life today is the sum total result of your choices, decisions and actions up to this point. You can create your own future by changing your behaviors. You can make new choices and decisions that are more consistent with the person you want to be and the things you want to accomplish with your life.” And I thought, wow, this is great stuff. I read on ….

“Just think! Everything that you are or ever will be is up to you. And the only real limit on what you can be, do and have is the limit you place on your own imagination. You can take complete control of your destiny by taking complete control of your thoughts, words and actions from this day forward“, so am thinking thoughts, words, actions. This is very good food for the brain. I kept reading.

“If you want to be happy, healthy, prosperous, popular, positive and confident, just find out how other people who are enjoying these benefits got that way and do the same things that they do. Think the same thoughts. Feel the same feelings. Take the same actions. And as sure as two plus two makes four, you will eventually get the same results as others do. It is no miracle.” Mmmmmm, I took a notepad and scribbled the names of the guys whom I would like to know better and emulate as far as what I want to do is concerned. By now its becoming clear where I should be going ….

I stopped there when I started getting heavy-eyed. Closed the laptop and went to bed. I will share the excerpts fro the rest of the e-book as I read it. Great stuff!

Million dollar habits ….. mmmmmh now I know

Of Facebook and Writing

I must admit am a late adopter to social networking, but am now totally hooked. Been Facebooking like crazy. I never knew the power of social networks and how easy it is to find people. I have connected with old friends, have made new ones, joined networks of interest …… The possibilities are endless.

This could not have come at a better time, as I need all the networks possible to help me promote my upcoming book. It is in very good shape and am optimistic that it shall be a hit.

I have been listing all the places I shall donate my book including churches, schools, youth groups etc since it has a positive message for everybody. I am also convinced that it is blessed to give 😉

Am off to Facebook!

New to Microsoft Word 2007

I have been drive testing the above, and one cool feature is the word count thingy at the bottom left on the status bar. Nothing could be more exciting as you write a book! I can literally see my word count grow in tandem with the soreness of the finger tips. This “live ticker” of word count into numbers keeps me motivated and hungry for more!

Am at the phase of wrapping up the my book and it has come out well. I have a list of publishers whose doors I shall be knocking soon, so all you publishers out there, am coming !

I also discovered Notepad ++ ver 4.8.5, a great application that I write my blogs (like this post) offline and do other plain text editing. It is also great for XML and HTML editing, other things am learning! Did I mention 7Zip? Check out these utilities, and donate.

Am also waiting for my new Ubuntu CDs to be shipped, since downloading the ISO image on this side of the digital divide is a real pain in the back side. Are the ISPs and the fibre optic cablers reading this? I terribly need broadband (real, not imagined) on my balcony, barefoot (bila shoes). Talk to me people!

Still, hey life is truly phenomenal! Am enjoying it!