Reset system password for EeePC
If you managed to lose your Eee PC password, you can reset it with a pretty simple hack without resetting it with the built-in "Restore Factory Settings" and lose everything on your drive.
The first step in recovering your password is to remove the login password request so you can access your system.
Removing the login password request
To remove the password request, you have to delete a configuration file from your file system. You can do this by entering the single user mode.
1. Entering boot loader of the Eee PC
Turn on your Eee Pc and as soon as the first screen appears (the one with the "Press F2 to run setup") pres and hold pressed the f9 key, until the Grub main screen will appear.
Your options are:
- Normal Boot
- Perform Disk Scan
- Restore Factory Settings
2. Booting Single User Mode
Select Perform Disk Scan and press "e" key to edit the line. Now select the second line (the one that begins with "kernel") and pres "e" again
The cursor will blink at the end of the line. To enter the single mode you have to replace the string XANDROSSCAN=y
with XANDROSBOOTDEBUG=y
.
Make sure you typed it correctly.
Now press enter and then press "b" key to boot single mode user.
3. Removing the configuration file with BusyBox
Now you'll enter BusyBox, a small Linux-based system, with an ash shell. With this shell you'll have to delete the configuration file (requireLogin) located in /home/user/.AsusLauncher/. This way you'll remove the login password request !
Once in the BusyBox shell, execute the following commands:
for the Eee PC 701 or Eee PC 904 HD:
- mount /dev/sda2 /mnt-user/
- cd /mnt-user/home/user/
- rm .AsusLauncher/requireLogin
- exit
for the Eee PC 900:
- mknod /dev/sdb b 8 16
- mknod /dev/sdb1 b 8 17
- mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt-user/
- rm /mnt-user/user/.AsusLauncher/requireLogin
- exit
... press return to reboot and to enter your Eee PC without the login request ;) This was the the hardest part. Keep reading
Resetting the old password setting a new one
Now you're able to read and edit your files, but you can't administrate your Eee PC; you have to set a new password
Open the terminal (browse for it or just press CTRL+ALT+T) and type: sudo passwd user
Press enter and type the new password. Do the same for the root password by typing: sudo passwd
As promised, you're playing again with your Eee PC without any data loss! Have fun ;)
May 19th, 2011 - 20:59
Pressing F9 did not work, sent me straight into normal boot up.
if i bring up a terminal box every time i enter a command to alter the software it will ask for a password
cannot seem to get around these two problems
regards andy
July 23rd, 2012 - 01:35
Same here! It doesn’t work, I’ve tried F2 as well.
July 25th, 2012 - 04:37
It’s F9, be patient. This worked for me, although my cousin’s EEE PC 900 required the set of commands intended for the other models.
July 30th, 2013 - 01:08
what r the oyher commands then i have an EeePC1005 models
June 3rd, 2018 - 16:41
What is the answer to the F9 not working? I also have forgotten my password and cannot get into my Eee PC.
October 14th, 2012 - 12:34
Great fix Thanks
November 16th, 2012 - 03:31
i just got an asus EeePc Linux i got to the step 3 and got confused what do i do then
November 24th, 2012 - 22:04
every time i press F9, the windows xp screen runs and then the username-password screen.
dad’s friend gave the eee pc to us so know nothing about him and stuff..
July 18th, 2013 - 05:53
you press and HOLD f9 … -.-
February 9th, 2013 - 19:13
excellent solution. Thanks a lot. It worked right away!
June 18th, 2013 - 11:20
Changed to XANDROSBOOTDEBUG=y, hit enter – then pressed “b” and nothing happened.
June 18th, 2013 - 11:24
Ignore that last comment – entered a captical Y, instead of lower case. Doh.
June 15th, 2014 - 14:41
Hi! Kim here. I have forgotten my password. I have a little Asus eepc laptop with windows 7 starter pack on it which expired and the F9 trick didn’t work. Please help. Thank you
Kim.
October 9th, 2014 - 23:23
I have a asus eee Linux and I followed every step but once rebooted went back to the password screen :(
January 27th, 2015 - 13:19
Thanks!!!!!!!
November 2nd, 2017 - 04:37
I have an eee pc. 701sd. I forgot my password because I haven’t used it in forever. I’ve tried the f9 thing but nothing happened
June 18th, 2018 - 13:01
thank you for your post
December 24th, 2018 - 05:59
Good it works thx
July 5th, 2019 - 20:17
reboot worked, the only problem left is that I cannot enter a new password :/
I used ctrl+alt+T, typed “sudo passwd user”, pressed enter and when I wanted to type in a new password I can´t type anything in it..
March 14th, 2020 - 05:44
I realize this is years old but I wanted to say Thanks!
I came across an old EEE pc that I couldn’t remember the password to and your article fixed it.
Thanks!