[lug] root password

[Andrew GIlmore]

On Wed, 2006-08-02 at 11:47 -0400, Gordon Golding wrote:
> Somebody reset the root password on a shared machine and now can't
> remember what they set it to.

If you have sudo, just change it.

Otherwise, it depends on access and the security of the machine. If the
machine has not been setup to require login in single user mode, booting
with a kernel command line parameter of "1" will get a root prompt.

If that doesn't work, boot from a rescue cd, and remove root's password
from /etc/shadow. Then either chroot or boot into single user mode and
change root's password.

If you don't have physical access, life gets much more difficult. :)

Andrew