Hi,
On Mon, Jun 17, 2024 at 01:33:12PM -0600, HERIBERTO AVELINO wrote:
> My root account is locked. I experienced the well known issue "Debian
> authentication failure" at the log-in stage, i.e. it would not accept the
> root password.
With physical access to the machine and without an encrypted
filesystem it's really quite trivial to regain access.
Example for Debian 10 but still applies for other versions:
https://www.tecmint.com/reset-forgotten-root-password-in-debian/
> So, I would like to ask:
> - Can I access the system to back up my working files?
Yes, you can boot the Debian installer in "rescue" mode and access
your files, or any other "Live" version of Linux to do same.
> - How can I back up the files to an external device?
You probably should try resetting your password(s) first as using
your normal system will be a lot more convenient. But if for some
reason you don't want to do that, pretty much any external storage
device should also show up under a "live" environment so the answer
is: boot one of those and plug the storage in (or do it over the
network to some storage).
Thanks,
Andy
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