I am running SuSE V.9.1 and it has been and is working very nicely for me up untill a few days ago when it all of a sudden would no longer give me root access. When ever I try to go to root it refuses my password now.

Is there a way to edit the root password without having root access? I would hate to think that I am going to have to reinstall again and start all over.

I read in the SuSE 8 manual just today or yesterday that it is difficult to fix this problem, which implies that it can be fixed.

However, there is probably a reason why it isn't working. Try typing in the password (when noone else is around ) in the username prompt, so that you can see what is actually being entered. I had a terrible time logging into SuSE (after 10 months of no use), although I knew exactly what the password should be. Since I had spilled water on my keyboard earlier this year, some of the keys don't always work exactly every time. So on the eighth try it worked. Typing the password in where you can see it will show you that it is being received correctly. If it were loading the wrong keyboard encoding by default then your password might not work.

This is not to mention, "have you checked whether your CAPS lock is on?"

Don't reinstall just yet.

Mike

If you have room left on another partition install something else, mount the suse partition chroot into it and/or reset the root passwd or delete it from /etc/shadow or remove the x from /etc/passwd.

The issue I hated worse was debian that won't give you root access even if you trick it into single user mode on boot, so ya gotta replace it with an encrypted password from another account since that's a password you know anyway.....arggh!

Cool answer jev-bird.

I wonder if that process would work with Knoppix? That would be easier than installing a new system to the hdd. The point is moot I guess if you already have another system mounted. But thanks for that answer, I hope I never have to use it.

Yes it can be done with Knoppix. Though I forget how There is a tutorial on IBM DevloperWorks called something like "System Recovery using Knoppix".

You don't need to reinstall. This link gives you the basic steps on what to do. You can also run a Google search on the terms "root password recovery" and you'll find multiple articles on how to go about it. Good luck with it -- J.W.

I appreciate your efforts fellows, but the sad truth is NOTHING worked. I tried the rescue using the SuSE dvd and was able to get to the passwrd and shadow files and edit them, but it did no good whatsoever......I tried the grub boot thing trying to get to single user, but it too did not work. Me and a friend worked 5 hours trying everything we could think of and searching the net for ideas, we also used a live cd of knoppix,but all failed. It simply would not let me reset the root password, so I reinstalled SuSE and presto I am back in business. Of course now it is going to take a week to put all the patches and reinstall all the software that I used to have in place.......rats!

Anyway it seems that what works for one distro doesn't always work for another, to bad things aren't a bit more standardized, sure makes it hard to get help when you need it.