Gentoo resetting lost root passwords without LiveCD
Posted on November 14th, 2008
Most know to add ‘1’ or ‘single’ to the kernel line in Grub to get runlevel 1 access, if they lost their root passwd. There are many articles on the web about this. However as we know Gentoo sometimes does things a little differently. To reset the forgotten root passwd on a Gentoo box without LiveCD.
1. Press ESC a few times to get the GRUB prompt, when system is booting
2. select the default kernel and press ‘e’ <–you may have one or more kernels
3. select the kernel line and press ‘e’ again
4. add the end of the kernel line add ‘single init=/bin/bash’ <–hit enter!
5. Confirm ‘single init=/bin/bash is at the end of the kernel line
6. press ‘B’ to boot
7. It will drop you into runlevel 1
8. mount -o remount, rw /
9. passwd <–now reset your root passwd
10. mount -o remount,ro /
11.reboot
This method should work on most other distros as well, but you should not have to add ‘init=/bin/bash’ unless required. (gentoo being one of them) Most other distros can be booted into runlevel 1 just by appending ‘single’ or ‘1’ to the end of the kernel line.