Emergency use of boot-rescue disk.

[per_adua32 <ulla.russell@pp.inet.fi>]

I came home from work looking forward to a few hours 
playing with my Linux box, but unfortunately am unable 
to log on.

I thought about re-installing the base system (which 
doesn't take long) but I decided to ask for help instead.

I have the rescue disk and a bootdisk but don't really know
what to do with them. I looked some old copies of the Linux 
gazette and found the following:


% If you have forgotten your root password:
%    1. Use a boot disk.
%    2. Login as root.
%    3. Mount the partition with your Linux.
%    4. Edit the second field, which is the encrypted password, of
%       /etc/passwd to show nothing. It would look something like this:
%
%	root::0:0:root,,,:/:/bin/zsh
% instead of something like this:
%
%	wimpy:GoqTFXl3f:0:0:Steve:/root:/bin/zsh
%
% You should then be able to login as root with no password at all.

Problem is I don't understand one logs in as root without a password.
Can someone please help.