Single User Mode

Root password recovery in Single User Mode

1. Boot your Linux box and start hitting 'Esc' until you get the GRUB menu. The GRUB menu passes by quickly. This can be a pain over VMWare so you might have to reboot a few times before you catch it.

2. Select a boot image from the menu then press 'e' to edit.

3. Select the Kernel line and press 'e' to edit. It should look something like this:

   kernel /vmlinux-2.6.15-27-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro quiet splash

Edit the line to get rid of quiet and splash and add 'single':

   kernel /vmlinux-2.6.15-27-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root ro single

4. Then press enter. You will be returned to the menu. 5. Press 'b' to boot with these new settings.

If if appears to boot normally, but you see a message that says:

   Give root password for maintenance
   (or type Control-D to continue):

then you will have to try a different trick below.

Single User Mode without root password for maintenance

This method will get you past the "Give root password for maintenance" message, but the environment will be much more primitive. You may have to mount filesystems and you will have no network. But this should be enough for you to issue a 'passwd' command to change the password for root.

1. Reboot your machine; Press 'Esc' to get to the GRUB menu; select your image; press 'e' to edit. 2. Edit the kernel line. Edit the line to get rid of quiet and splash; change 'ro' to 'rw'; and add 'init=/bin/bash'. The line should look something like this:

   kernel /vmlinux-2.6.15-27-386 root=/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root rw init=/bin/bash

3. Press 'enter' then 'b' to boot with these new settings.