You need to get on the system one way or another as superuser (root). Then edit /etc/shadow exactly as MadeInGermany says to remove the hashed password field for user root.
Usually superuser access is achieved by booting from DVD (installation media) into single user:
which will not take you into the installation routine but allow you a shell to make changes.
This is easier if you are running simple UFS filesystems.
If your filesystems are ZFS then post back here and we'll tell you how to do it.
Dear Forum savants,
I have a problem that I am not sure how to overcome. Two years ago I had
a friend build me computer with a linux os (red hat) for learning purposes. It happens to have an oracle server on it as well... Anyway , because of personal reasons, I lost complete interest in... (5 Replies)
i forgot my password on a HP-UX 9.xx machine. is there a possible way of changing it without knowing the root passwd?
I would do it with a boot disk and chroot but I dont have a boot disk available....
any ideas?
thanks!!
Paul Tittel (1 Reply)
Hello,
Is there a way to reset the "root" unix password, pretty much like you would do in linux by going into single user mode? :confused: :confused:
Thank you in advance. (5 Replies)
Bit of a strange problem I have never come across before..
I can log into the workstation going through the server as it is a trusted host but when I try and connect to the workstation through SSH or RSH directly it will not take the password, I changed the password when I logged in the machine... (5 Replies)
hi
i have a RHEL 4 and have forgot root passwd
tried to boot in by singel user and then changing the passwd but it's not letting me do that ......throwing some weird error as .......manipulation
i also tried to make a new user from CLI but even though it's not letting me in from that user as... (12 Replies)
hello friends,
I am currently using solaris 10.
I have lost the root password.
Can you please give me a step by step procedure on how to set the password again. (11 Replies)
Hello All,
I have several solaris boxes running Solaris 8. When changing root passwords on them, all will simply ask for the new root password to change and of course to re-type the new password. One of the systems however asks for the existing root password before it will display the new password... (8 Replies)
I have VPS openSUSE 12.2
I forgot MYSQL password root
when i run in CMD:
> mysql
Error Message Show :
>> ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO) (6 Replies)
i do not have root on a solairs 10 server , however i do have the root role, i was wondering if I can change the root password as a a role with the passwd command? I have not tried yet.
and do i have to use the # chgkey -p afterwards?
i need to patch is why i am asking.
thanks (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: goya
1 Replies
LEARN ABOUT LINUX
sulogin
SULOGIN(8) Linux System Administrator's Manual SULOGIN(8)NAME
sulogin - Single-user login
SYNOPSIS
sulogin [ -e ] [ -p ] [ -t SECONDS ] [ TTY ]
DESCRIPTION
sulogin is invoked by init(8) when the system goes into single user mode. (This is done through an entry in inittab(5).) Init also tries
to execute sulogin when the boot loader (e.g., grub(8)) passes it the -b option.
The user is prompted
Give root password for system maintenance
(or type Control-D for normal startup):
If the root account is locked, as is the default on Ubuntu, no password prompt is displayed and sulogin behaves as if the correct password
were entered.
sulogin will be connected to the current terminal, or to the optional device that can be specified on the command line (typically /dev/con-
sole).
If the -t option is used then the program only waits the given number of seconds for user input.
If the -p option is used then the single-user shell is invoked with a dash as the first character in argv[0]. This causes the shell
process to behave as a login shell. The default is not to do this, so that the shell will not read /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile at
startup.
After the user exits the single-user shell, or presses control-D at the prompt, the system will (continue to) boot to the default runlevel.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
sulogin looks for the environment variable SUSHELL or sushell to determine what shell to start. If the environment variable is not set, it
will try to execute root's shell from /etc/passwd. If that fails it will fall back to /bin/sh.
This is very valuable together with the -b option to init. To boot the system into single user mode, with the root file system mounted
read/write, using a special "fail safe" shell that is statically linked (this example is valid for the LILO bootprompt)
boot: linux -b rw sushell=/sbin/sash
FALLBACK METHODS
sulogin checks the root password using the standard method (getpwnam) first. Then, if the -e option was specified, sulogin examines these
files directly to find the root password:
/etc/passwd,
/etc/shadow (if present)
If they are damaged or nonexistent, sulogin will start a root shell without asking for a password. Only use the -e option if you are sure
the console is physically protected against unauthorized access.
AUTHOR
Miquel van Smoorenburg <miquels@cistron.nl>
SEE ALSO init(8), inittab(5).
17 Jan 2006 SULOGIN(8)