[TriLUG] no root PW

[Ed Hill]

On Wed, 2002-04-17 at 10:26, Greg Brown wrote:
> Help.  I have just inherited a Red Hat 7.1 system and nobody knows the root 
> password.  I'd like to just scrape the system clean and start over but I 
> can't do that for a variety of reasons.  
> 
> Is it possible to reset the root password without damaging the file system?


Its easy if there is no BIOS password.

Just get a copy of a floppy-based or CD-based distro (such as tom's
root-boot or the RH 7.2 install disk) and then boot off of it (not that
you'll want to use the "linux rescue" or similar option with a RH 7.2
install CD).

Once you have the mini-distro running (and you are root), you can mount
the partitions on the hard disk and make any changes that you need to
do...

hth,
Ed

-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD
Post-Doctoral Researcher   |  Email:       ed at eh3.com, ehill at mines.edu
Division of ESE            |  URL:         http://www.eh3.com
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