Hi anyone out there help me with this...

I am using FC3. What if I forget the root password ? What can I do to change the root password and login to the machine ?

Thanks in advance

Boot into the machine using a linux live CD (like for example, Knoppix).

When you're in, first you need to mount the root partition of your FC3 system to /mnt
e.g. mount -t auto /dev/hda1 /mnt where hda1 should be changed to where your root partition is (if you can't remember where it was, just try to mount all your partitions until you found the right one).

Then use an editor to open /mnt/etc/shadow; find the line that starts with "root" (usually the 1st) and remove all the characters between the first and the second colons (this is the encryted root passwd). Save and reboot into your FC3 system, you can now log in as root without passwd (just press enter for password). Now immediately change the root password to a new one!

You can either go through GRUB or use the 1st CD to boot to a rescue environment. To go through GRUB you need the GRUB password (only if you have one. If you can't remember it either then you have to use the other method)

First at GRUB select the entry you would boot, then press "e" (means edit).
Then you will be taken to a screen with several lines. Select the line containing 'kernel' and press "e" again to go into edit mode.
After the current content of the line add a space and append "1" and press escape. Then press "b" to boot (to run level one) from that settings.
You will be booted and taken to a prrompt with "#"
Type and change the password, and remember it!

If this doesn't work or if it asks you the current password, tell us back. We'll see the otherways then. For a typical FC3 this would work.

Note: You can see a glimpse of what can be done with GRUB. That's why GRUB should use a password.

To SkyEye

I see the following line

grub edit> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet

So where do I put that space and a 1?

Gee thanx for helping around

To SkyEye

I just tried the following

grub edit> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=LABEL=/ 1

and that ended with a Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

What now?

First, Sorry I took long to answer. I was away in the weekend.

So you say you are at this line

Make it like this
And don't remove any existing content (as you did in the second posting). They are kernel parameters and other information required by you Linux system.