After playing with my networking settings in Breezy, I seem to have lost some data from my /etc/hosts file. Partly it requires editing to add to add "ubuntuDavid" to it. However without it I can't log in as root to edit it. Can't find password!
Here's a possibility: root doesn't have a password set at all under ubuntu. Instead, log in as your user and run 'sudo nano /etc/hosts', and enter *your* password in. This assumes that your account is the first one that was created when you installed the machine. If this doesn't work, it possibly means that more than the hosts file has become corrupted. Consider upgrading to dapper at about this point.
I can't edit it with Knoppix, I don't have permission. Is there any way to edit it or is it a reinstall job.
With knoppix you'd still need to run a root terminal, instead of just the normal one.