Lost root level password on Linux CentOS November 27, 2006
Posted by paragonhost in Linux.3 comments
Q:
I have lost my system (centos 4.3) root password,
I have change try to change the root password by the command “change password” but I receive the message “error 32 you must be authentificated”
Thank you,
A:
You need to boot into single user mode (by sitting in front of the actual computer)
Then you can reset it from there.
Quoted from another post:
“Boot into single user mode. You can do that by modifying the grub boot option on startup.
1. Press ‘e’ to edit startup
2. Use the arrow keys to highlight the kernel line and pres ‘e’ to edit the parameters
3. At the end of the line, add the word ’single’ (without the ‘) and press Enter
4. Press ‘b’ to boot the system
You will be dropped directly into a bash shell as root and can change the password. You can also access your file system from there. You will not have any network access while in single user mode though.”
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