No password no updates

Question

My new officemate inherited a previous officemate's tangerine iMac running 10.3.9. Previous officemate left under very bad circumstances and did not bother to leave the password for the computer with anyone. New officemate needs to do some updating but with no password the updates can't do any good.
No, we cannot and will not contact previous officemate. Good riddance! So how can we figure out the password?
Diloretta

Answer 1

Change Password
Mac OS X:
Changing or resetting an account password via GUI:
Resetting a user's password
Resetting the original administrator account password
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106156
Changing password from single user mode:
You can also change the administrator's password from single user mode. These steps are more complicated.
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://www.securemac.com/macosxsingleuser.php
Basically, you hold down the command-s key when powering on. 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) Get the Mac to set up a new administrative account. You can then change the password on your old account.
This was Posted by: JoseAranda at September 9, 2006 3:48 AM
OK, restart your computer, hold down Command-s and type in the following:
/sbin/fsck -y Enter
/sbin/mount -uaw Enter
rm /var/db/.applesetupdone Enter
reboot Enter
Once you've done that the computer reboots and ask you to set up an admin password. From there you just change all other account passwords in the account preferences!!
end of posted by: JoseAranda
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/howdo_i_reset_my_mac_os_x_admin_rootpassword.html
You will need to scoll down to see this post. Search for applesetupdone
Once you have a new administrative account, you can change the password of your old administrative account
blue apple > System Preferences > Accounts
2) You can change the password on an account. ( Do you know Unix. You are in a Unix single user console. )
To find out the users on the system type:
ls /Users
One of these accounts will be the administrator.
Pick one of the users and type:
passwd a-user-name
and enter the new user password. You need six characters.
The root account isn't enabled by default. I am not sure if changing the password on root will enable it.
How to crack Mac OS X password
I recommend changing your password, but with a lot of computer work you can find out your current password.
shttp://www.wap.org/journal/crackmacpasswords.html
Robert