[linux-help] Re: root password

[Jonathan Hall <jonhall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As I recall, even single-user mode asks for a root password.

I suppose if nothing else, you could specify /bin/bash as the init process,
which obviously would not ask for a password.


On Mon, Aug 21, 2000 at 12:53:29AM -0500, Tom Hull wrote:
> For future reference:
> 
> You should also be able to boot the system into "single user mode", which 
> will give
> you a root shell w/o password (assuming you have physical access to the 
> console;
> nothing else is running). At your lilo prompt, type
> 
>    linux s
> 
> replacing "linux" with whatever your kernel is called in /etc/lilo.conf; you 
> can
> probably replace "s" with "single" -- I only tested the former.
> 
> Once you are running as root, edit /etc/shadow to remove the root password, or
> /etc/passwd if you are not using shadow passwords. (Of course, you _should_ be
> using shadow passwords.) To switch to multi-user mode, run
> 
>    init 3
> 
> or reboot. (If you normally come up with a X running and some sort of graphic
> login, you're probably at runlevel 5 rather than 3. The runlevel numbers are
> pretty arbitrary -- they really just tell init to run scripts from 
> /etc/rc.d/rc?.d/,
> where ? is your intended runlevel.)
> 
> Bruce Bales wrote:
> > 
> > Many thanks, Jon.  It wasn't as easy as I thought when I read your message, 
> > but I'm up
> > again.
> > bruce
> > 
> > Jonathan Hall wrote:
> > 
> > > Boot from a rescue disk (as though you were going to do a fresh install, 
> > > for
> > > instance), mount the hard disk, edit /etc/passwd, remove the root 
> > > password.
> > >
> > > Then reboot again normally, log in as root (it shouldn't even ask you for 
> > > a
> > > password), then run 'passwd' to set your password agian.
> > >
> > > On Sun, Aug 20, 2000 at 07:21:30PM -0500, Bruce Bales wrote:
> > > > When I got back from vacation, my root password no longer works.  Maybe 
> > > > I just forgot
> > > > it.  Is there any way, short of reloading Mandrake 7.1, to retrieve or 
> > > > change the
> > > > root password.
> > > >
> > > > Stupid Bruce
> 
> -- 
> /*
>  *  Tom Hull * thull@xxxxxxxxxxx * http://www.ocston.org/~thull/
>  */
> 
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