| Red Hat Linux 6.2: The Official Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide | ||
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Help! I can't remember my root password. How do I log in now?
You can log in with single-user mode, in which you can create a new root password.
When you see the boot: prompt, type linux single to enter single-user mode. Some of the filesystems will be mounted, and you will find a bash# prompt when you've entered single-user mode (note that this prompt will look somewhat different than the prompt you're accustomed to).
Now, you can change root's password by typing
bash# passwd root |
You'll be asked to re-type the password for verification. Once you're finished, the password will be changed and you can reboot by typing shutdown -r now at the prompt; then you can log in to root as before.