First of all is the post a mistake?? Is this a question or a statement???
Secondly, what would you find in the /etc/passwd file... hmmmm? Depending if you have stuff setup with shadow or not you would see nothing (as far as password) or a bunch of hashes.
So how do you retrieve a lost passwd???
Answer: You dont. Put it into runlevel one (you can hit shift if using lilo and type linux <or whatever> 1). I dont remember though.. this might still ask you for a root pswd. If so... its emergancy boot disk time. :-D .
Then you as root delete and add a new passwd with (under Linux) passwd command and enter a new password.
