| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Step By Step Guide | ||
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| Prev | Chapter 14. Frequently Asked Questions | Next |
Help! I forgot my root password. How do I log in now?
You can log in using single-user mode and create a new root password.
To enter single-user mode, reboot your computer. If you use the default boot loader, GRUB, you can enter single user mode by performing the following:
At the boot loader menu, use the arrow keys to highlight the
installation you want to edit and type
You are presented with a prompt that looks similar to the following:
grub append> ro root=LABEL=/ |
Press the Spacebar once to add a blank space, then add the word single to tell GRUB to boot into single-user Linux mode. The result should look like the following:
ro root=LABEL=/ single |
Press
sh-2.05b# |
You can now change the root password by typing
passwd root |
You will be asked to re-type the password for verification. Once you are finished, the password will be changed. You can then reboot by typing reboot at the prompt; then you can log in to root as you normally would.