[TriLUG] no root PW

Paul D. Boyle boyle at laue.chem.ncsu.edu
Wed Apr 17 12:45:41 EDT 2002


Ed Hill wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-04-17 at 10:26, Greg Brown wrote:
> > Help.  I have just inherited a Red Hat 7.1 system and nobody knows the root 
> > password.  I'd like to just scrape the system clean and start over but I 
> > can't do that for a variety of reasons.  
> > 
> > Is it possible to reset the root password without damaging the file system?
> 
> 
> Its easy if there is no BIOS password.
> 
> Just get a copy of a floppy-based or CD-based distro (such as tom's
> root-boot or the RH 7.2 install disk) and then boot off of it (not that
> you'll want to use the "linux rescue" or similar option with a RH 7.2
> install CD).

It has been awhile since I have had to do something like this, so my
knowledge is probably out of date.  Doesn't booting into single user
mode from the LILO prompt work anymore?


Paul


-- 
Paul D. Boyle			    |	boyle at laue.chem.ncsu.edu
Director, X-ray Structural Facility |	phone: (919) 515-7362
Department of Chemistry - Box 8204  |	FAX:   (919) 515-5079
North Carolina State University     | 
Raleigh, NC, 27695-8204
http://laue.chem.ncsu.edu/web/xray.welcome.html



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