Need help recovering Ubuntu 10.10 password

[geekygeek2]

I just bought an emac preloaded with ubuntu 10.10 from a friend, however, he forgot the password. the emac will not boot from cd or usb. How could I recover the password or change. The emac will not access the grub menu. Any help would be very appreciated. Thanx!

[Solidus]

You should be able to access grub.. it can't be recovered otherwise. What happens instead?