lost root password

[Bob Edwards]

"Scott D. Ferguson" wrote:
> 
> I've inherited a Debian box setup as a firewall. In an effort to learn better config. I'd like to examine the setting. Unfortunately I don't have the root password.
> Tried Ctrl+X > passwd to no avail.
> 
> Q1.  Is it worth re-setting the password (I don't have a recent Debian comp.)?
> 
> Q2. Can I re-set it (and how)?
> ---
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You could boot the machine with /bin/bash as your init and then edit your
/etc/shadow file to remove the old root password.

At the lilo prompt, type:

linux init=/bin/bash

After it boots, you may need to remount the root filesystem read/write:

mount -o remount /dev/... /

Cheers,

Bob Edwards.