Root password recovery

[cheezetrix]

How do you recover a RedHat root password? I've heard you can by going into single user mode. How can I do this before my machine boots up?

[flyingfish]

Hi,

You cannot recover your password once lost or forgotten. But what you can do is :-

if u r using lilo u can type single or 1 or linux single on the boot prompt, it will boot into single user mood, it will take u to bash prompt, where u can change the root pass. All done and now reboot the machine.

Hope this helps

[starfish]

This method applies if you are using RedHat/Fedora

• 1) Restart your system
  2) When the Linux logo screen appears, the one which allows you to select the various installed kernels on the system, type the letter "a" for "append"
  3) You will get a prompt like this:
  
  grub append> ro root=LABEL=/
  
  4) Add a "1" to the end of the string like this:
  
  grub append> ro root=LABEL=/ 1
  
  5) Hit enter. The system will continue to boot, but will go straight to the root # prompt without first asking for a username and password.

You can then change your root password and then use the "init 3" / "init 5" commands to continue the booting process to multiuser text / GUI modes

[SwordFish]

i think you can boot from another linux like knoppix and mount linux partition, chroot and erase MD5 code from root pass.

reboot pc and login with root without password

[Anonymous]

This method is useful for Red Hat Linux 9.0
Method in Steps:

Step # 1:
Restart/reboot the Linux Operating System
From Boot Loader Menu
type [e]

Step # 2:
Boot Entry lsiting
kernel/vmlinuz -2.4.18-0.4 ro root = /dev/hda2
Press Arrow key to highlight the linux
and press [e]

Step # 3:
add the word single one space after end of the text.

Step # 4:
press ENTER to make changes effect

Step # 5:
press [b]

Step # 6:
sh-2.05#

Step # 7:
bash ---> passwd root

Step # 8:
restart/reboot.