[asterisk-users] Root Password not taking

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 11:54:59AM -0500, Matt Watson wrote:

> For distros that do require a root password when booting single user mode,
> your only real options have already been mentioned here...
> 
> 1) boot from a CD, mount your partitions then:

Your other option is:

Add the boot option 'init=/bin/bash' (or /bin/sh, hwatever) . 

Then the kernel and initrd load and you have a system with only a single
process. BEWARE: THINGS ARE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT. e.g. your terminal is
not properly set, and a non-careful ping will hang you for good.

  # In some cases ytou'll need:
  #mount /proc
  # first make the system writable:
  mount -o remount,rw /
  passwd root
  # set it
  
now fix other stuff that needs fixing.
If you need to do lots of stuff, use open or openvt to create a second
terminal on a different console.

At this point DO NOT REBOOT. A plain 'reboot' will do nothing, as
your shell is the init process. A poweroff will cause your changes to
get unwritten, as they were not yet synced to the disk.

  # not really needed, but also syncs to the disk, and leave things
  # exactly as you find them
  mount -o remount,ro /
  #umount /proc

To save time and effort: don't reboot. Just continue standard init
process:

  exec /sbin/init

This works because your shell is process no. 1. And /sbin/init behaves
as a special process if and only if it is process no. 1.

-- 
               Tzafrir Cohen
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