On 01/05/2010 05:15 AM, Andy Blanchard wrote:
Adding to what Marko wrote, since it sounds from the original post
like the system may be configured to ask for a password in single user
mode. If that's the case you'll need to boot from the Fedora install
disc and choose the rescue mode, or if not available use any Linux
rescue/recovery disk and mount the root partition manually.
Once that's done, *carefully* edit the file "/etc/shadow" on the
system's boot disk and delete the long string of gibberish between
"root:" and the next ":", the next time you boot in single user mode
it will drop you directly to the root prompt without a login and you
can then use "password" to enter a new password.
If it comes to this and you have the HDD's "/etc" actually mounted on
"/etc", then if at all possible use the command "vipw -s" to edit
the
file as this will set the necessary locks to prevent any file
corruption etc.
A better why is to "chroot /mnt/sysimage" and use passwd to change
roots password. Then enter exit twice to safely reboot the system.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Reset_Forgotten_Root_Password
Mikkel
--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!