Re: lost the root password

[Carl Mummert <mummert@cs.wcu.edu>]

You probably can't derive the root password from info on your
system (if you could, then it would be easy to break in...)

But you can get around it as long as you have physical access to the machine.

Get 'tom's unix on a floppy' or any other linux boot disk.  The debian
rescue disk may work, but I never use ti so I don't know.

Boot that floppy in your machine, and mount the partition of your
hard disk that contains /etc on /mnt : for example,

#  mount /dev/hda1 /mnt 

Then, edit the passwd file IN THE MOUNTD PARTITION

#  vi /mnt/etc/passwd

And remove root's password:

Change
  root:sdfklhsdfakj:0:0:....
to
  root::0:0:...

If you use shadow passwords, do the same thing to /mnt/etc/shadow.

Then, reboot your machine without the diskette, and you will
be able to log in as root with no password.

Then, change the root password to something secure.

Carl