forgot root password

juno · 05-11-2003, 03:55 AM

I use RH 9 , if forgot the root password , how to get back the password ? t hx.

whansard · 05-11-2003, 04:16 AM

at the lilo prompt, boot single user.
run passwd

juno · 05-11-2003, 07:26 AM

How to boot to single user mode ? thx.

markus1982 · 05-11-2003, 07:29 AM

I assme RedHat is using GRUB since a while. Check http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...ng-single.html since it answers your question.

nuzzy · 05-11-2003, 07:31 AM

reboot -s at a command prompt should do it too...

markus1982 · 05-11-2003, 07:33 AM

I bet that person is dual booting and lost the password, thus no other chance than that!

juno · 05-11-2003, 07:59 AM

hi markus ,

I read the doc, the first step is type p and type in the password , but i forgot the password , so i can't pass through this step , what can i do? thx.

markus1982 · 05-11-2003, 08:05 AM

Hmm, well you can always use Knoppix and when the Knoppix prompt appears enter knoppix 2 ... then mount your root partition and edit /etc/shadow. It will look like this (the first line

Quote:

root:$1$eNq5hBUx$lTkmKii66qdLZwHz4QKBA/:12176:0:99999:7:::

So in this case to reset the password (no password set) remove the 2nd part (starts at first :) $1eNq5hBUx$lTkmKii66qdLZwHz4QKBA/ until the 3rd part starts (next :). So it will look like this:

Quote:

root::12176:0:99999:7:::

Now root has NO PASSWORD. If you have network connection I advise you to unplug it otherwise you have a real security problem ... after that jsut reboot and login as root and set a new password!