Franken-Computer

So I started out this evening trying to configure a wireless network card for my old PC, which is now running a copy of Ubuntu Linux 5.10. I then realized that I can’t even log onto the computer because I forgot my username and password, and I can find that information by booting from an Ubuntu-live CD and then inspecting my auth logs.

I tried once to boot from the Ubuntu-live CD, and failed. I dug around online and found out how to access my machine’s BIOS by pressing the delete key at start-up. Then I checked the boot order, and saw that the system boots first from floppy, then CD-ROM, then hard drive. So really, it should have worked.

After more poking around, I looked in the install folder on my Ubuntu CD, and I found some useful information that led me to a website about Smart Boot Manager:

If your BIOS supposedly supports booting from a CD-ROM, but that feature isn’t working, this disk might be just what you need!

So then the next step was to create the SBM disk, which I eventually realized was pretty easy to do, using a utility called Rawrite32 for Windows (meaning, I had to run upstairs to my Mom’s PC, download the program, create the disk). I bet there’s another way to create a boot disk from a Mac, but mine doesn’t have a floppy drive anyway.

So after all of these diversions, I popped my new SBM disk into my floppy drive, and voila: I was able to run Ubuntu-live off of the CD. Now I just need to follow these instructions.

PS - Is it painfully apparent yet that this whole process is going to take me a long time?

Just found someone else who also completely forgot his username and password. I feel a little bit better that I’m not the only one. Now I just need to dig up a blank CD somewhere, to create a live CD with which to inspect my auth logs, whatever that means.

I don’t know anything about Linux, but I had a feeling that I wanted to install a distribution on my old computer, to replace Windows 98. So when the sys admin at my old office suggested Ubuntu, I went with Ubuntu, simple as that. He even burned me an install CD for Ubuntu version 5.10. After a bit of work, I managed to install it on my machine and got it up and running.

Then I stopped. I got the OS up and running, and then got distracted for about 9 months. Now I’m returning to the project, and I realize that there’s a much newer version of Ubuntu available (6.06), and I’ve completely forgotten my username and password. The OS still loads as usual, but I haven’t a clue how to actually get into the thing. I’ve tried all the usual suspects for usernames and passwords, and none of them have worked. I’m wondering if maybe there’s a default user account and password that I never changed, or maybe the solution is to just wipe this OS and start over with the newest version of Ubuntu. One thing’s for sure though, progress would be a hell of a lot swifter if I just wrote down some essential information every once in a while. Sigh.

I went off to school in 2000 with a super sweet Dell Dimension 4100 desktop, running Windows 98, First Edition. I graduated four years later with the same desktop, same operating system. But somehow, with the passage of time, the machine became less sweet to me. As cliché at it may sound, I decided to ditch the PC for a Mac iBook G4, and my old, trusty desktop was left to rot in my Mom’s basement…until now.

I’ve picked up a wireless network card and a mammoth hard drive, and it’s time to whip this piece-o-shit computer into shape. That being said, I know nothing about computer hardware. I do know that I don’t have internet access as the computer stands now, since Windows 98 First Edition doesn’t support wireless network cards. So it seem the first thing to do would be to wipe the machine and install a new OS.

• Dell Dimmension 4100 Tower, circa 2000
• HP Deskjet 842C, no color ink cartridge
• 17″ Dell monitor, chunky
• Keyboard
• D-Link Wireless G Desktop Adapter
• Seagate 250GB Internal Hard Drive
• Various other pieces and parts