Re: Technical Inquiry

[Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com>]

On Friday 20 March 2009 17:11:20 Chris Jones wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 12:57:29PM EDT, Lisi Reisz wrote:
> > On Friday 20 March 2009 13:50:27 Jeffrey Cao wrote:
> > > On 2009-03-20, Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > On Friday 20 March 2009 09:01:17 Sudev Barar wrote:
> > > >> 2009/3/20 Jeffrey Cao <jcao.linux@gmail.com>:
> > > >> > Boot into single user mode, and you are the root.
> > > >> > Then, you can change root password.
> > > >>
> > > >> Ah..banging my head why I did not think of this...
> > > >
> > > > Because it doesn't work in Etch or Lenny?  Don't know about other
> > > > versions of Debian.  I have certainly used distros where it did work.
> > > >
> > > > If you try to boot into single user mode it demands the root
> > > > password. Otherwise it won't let you in.
> > > >
> > > > Lisi
> > >
> > > It does not demands the root password. It just request you to give root
> > > a new password, which is the chance you could change root password
> > > without knowing the old one.
> >
> > We must have different installations.  I have used Etch and then Lenny
> > for some time and I cannot boot into single user without giving it the
> > correct (already existing) root password.
> >
> > The method suggested by Doug would still not give you write access, which
> > you would need in order to change root's password.
>
> mount -o remount,rw /dev/whatever

Thanks!  There are obviously many ways to skin a cat. ;-)  As I said, having 
been using chroot from a Live CD successfully, and anyway rarely, I hadn't 
bothered looking any further.

Many other distros of course go straight into a root CLI if you choose single 
user from the grub menu.

Lisi