Hi,
Now I've had a chance to re-read this I'm not sure it will help in your case, as you need to be able to install the attached plugin.
It was written for dreambox, but your passwd file will also be in /etc so in theory it should work if you can get the plugin manually installed.
Hopefully you can do something with it.
Code:
Here is how you can change the root password on dreambox even if Tuxbox is password protected or other methods fail:
Obviously if you don't have root access you won’t be able to FTP this plugin to the Dreambox.
The way around this is to mount a shared folder on your PC to the dreambox, then
do a manual plugin install on the box, browse to the mounted share and pick it up from there.
When you run the attached plugin "password_switcher", it replaces the passwd file
with one where 'dreambox' is the root password and stores the original elsewhere.
If you run it a second time it swaps back the old file, setting the password back to the one you don't know.
This is how set up a network mount for your folder with the plugin:
On your PC (See attached snapshots)
1. Create a folder somewhere on the PC. (Dont use any spaces in the name)
2. Right Click the folder -> Select Properties -> Select the Sharing tab -> Tick 'Share this folder on the network' and if you want to write to it tick 'Allow network users to change my files'.
3. Click 'Apply'
On the Dreambox (See attached snapshots)
1. Go to Blue Panel -> Extras / Setup -> Automount
2. Press the yellow button to add a new share.
3. Leave the mount point as 'nfs'.
4. Change the Client IP to that of your PC.
5. In the dropdown menu select 'cifs'
6. In 'Client dir' enter the name of the folder you created earlier.
7. Enter your PC username and password in the provided slots.
8. Press the Green button to save.
You may have to press the green button a second time in the Auto mount main menu 'restart'.
The mounted folder will appear under /automount/nfs.
It wont appear in the plugins menu, but you can browse to the file and execute it
with tux commander.