root passwd

sparks · 06-10-2002, 01:27 PM

Yes I know, the mother of all newbie questions: I forgot my root password, can anyone help me on this one or do I have to re-install

trickykid · 06-10-2002, 01:46 PM

and my question would be, have you searched the forums here. i think this is asked at least once a week on the site with excellent answers.

but you need to boot into single user mode to get that password changed for root.

linuxcool · 06-11-2002, 05:16 AM

Booting into single mode doesn't always work. On my Caldera system, after I went through the considerable trouble of adding ' single ' to the end ' kernel ' line from the splashscreen ( lilo is much easier. Just enter ' linux single ' at the prompt. ) , I was greeted by a login prompt. It wanted my password. Fortunately, I was just testing it. The culprit was the inittab file and these lines:

#
# Inittab
#

# What to do in single-user mode.
~1:S:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin

sewer_monkey · 06-11-2002, 08:51 PM

Get DemoLinux and just mount your hard drive Linux partition there and edit the /etc/passwd file, setting root's password to nothing.

If you're using lilo, you can also add the boot parameter "init=/bin/bash", but be very careful, this can get your filesystem screwed over big time, make sure to sync a few times and remount the partition in read only mode before cold booting when you're done!

sparks · 06-16-2002, 06:29 AM

I tried the backdoors y'all sugested but I completely screwed up my filesystem, by that time it was too late to make backup's.
I could'nt even get into my user acount anymore so I finaly decided to re-install the whole lot. Nevertheless I am still a happy Linux user.

greetz

Learn the big lesson: DO NOT forget your root passwd

MasterC · 06-16-2002, 07:25 AM

The way around that is to NOT HAVE a root password. Just kidding!!! Please no hate replies, it was a joke, honest. I would never ever ever suggest to ANYONE, especially a noob, to not have a root passwd enabled. Well maybe I would, but only to someone who is really mean.