How can I recover a lost Admin password?

Question

My 97-year old mother-in-law received a Mac PowerBook G4 as a gift, running Mac OS X (10.4.11). She uses it mainly to send and receive email. I wanted to install a printer driver so she can print. Could not install the driver because password for Administrator was required. We don't know the password. HELP says we can reset the password using the install disk, but we don't have the disk. I have also downloaded software to give her access to a new wireless home network, but I need the password to install that as well.

Answer 1

You need to do this from an admin account which the user may not have.
Change Password
Mac OS X:
You do not have a CD/DVD
Changing password from single user mode:
You can also change the administrator's password from single user mode or create a new administrator account.
You need to get into single use mode for steps one and two that are listed below.
This page will tell you how to get into single user mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492
Basically, you hold down the command-s key then powering on your machine. The command key has a little apple symbol on the lower left. It is between the alt/option key and the space bar. On a PC keyboard, it will be the windows key, I think.
1) You can change the password on an account. ( Do you know Unix. You are in a Unix single user console. ) The setup commands you need should be listed on the screen. For Mac OS 10.4.11, the commands are:
# Type the follow two instructions to access the startup disk in read/write:
/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /
# Start up some utility processes that are needed.
sh /etc/rc
# You will probably need to press the return key once the system stops typing.
# To find out the users on the system type, use the list command. The l is a lower case L:
ls /Users
# One of these accounts will be the administrator.
# Pick one of the users which I'll call a-user-name and type it in this command:
passwd a-user-name
# and enter the new user password. You need six characters.
# You will need to enter your password twice. Your typing will not show up on the screen just
# press enter when you complete the typing.
# For cryptic information on these commands try:
man ls
man passwd
The root account isn't enabled by default. I am not sure if changing the password on root will enable it.