Solaris

From your last post guess this is Solaris 11 in which 'root' is a role by default for improved security.

If you are used to Solaris 10 and prefer to work that way then you can convert the root role into a normal account using (you must be superuser first):

Code:

# rolemod -K type=normal root

then set the root passwd:

Code:

# passwd root

You can then login as root just like Solaris 10 and you will know the root password for single user startup.

When done you can revert root to a role using 'usermod' command.

thanks, i will give that a try, but my issue is on Solaris 10. we most likely will not go to 11 now since, development has ended. Will prob move to Linux.

I would be careful with rolemod. Not that at the end root lost its superuser role and cannot gain it back...
You see, I have never used rolemod.
I would rather save /etc/shadow (with cp to a new file) or save root's password hash.
Then set a new root password. Then reboot to single-user, now typing the root password, patching the OS, and reboot.
When everything is nice and shiny again, you can restore the shadow file (with cp) or root's password hash, so the old unknown password is back.