Linux How to reset a root password on Fedora

A system administrator can easily reset a password for a user that has forgotten their password. But what happens if the system administrator forgets the root password? This guide will show you how to reset a lost or forgotten root password. Note that to reset the root password, you need to have physical access to the machine in order to reboot and to access GRUB settings. Additionally, if the system is encrypted, you will also need to know the LUKS passphrase.

Edit the GRUB settings

First you need to interrupt the boot process. So you’ll need to turn on the system or restart, if it’s already powered on. The first step is tricky because the grub menu tends to flash by very quickly on the screen.

Press E on your keyboard when you see the GRUB menu:

After pressing ‘e’ the following screen is shown:

Use your arrow keys to move the the linux16 line.

Using your del key or backspace key, remove rhgb quiet and replace with the following.

rd.break enforcing=0

After editing the lines, Press Ctrl-x to start the system. If the system is encrypted, you will be prompted for the LUKS passphase here.

Note: Setting enforcing=0, avoids performing a complete system SELinux relabeling. Once the system is rebooted,  restore the correct SELinux context for the /etc/shadow file. (this is explained a little further in this process)

Mounting the filesystem

The system will now be in emergency mode. Remount the hard drive with read-write access:

# mount –o remount,rw /sysroot

Password Change

Run chroot to access the system.

# chroot /sysroot

You can now change the root password.

# passwd

Type the new root password twice when prompted. If you are successful, you should see a message that all authentication tokens updated successfully.

Type exit, twice to reboot the system.

Log in as root and restore the SELinux label to the /etc/shadow file.

# restorecon -v /etc/shadow

Turn SELinux back to enforcing mode.

# setenforce 1
0 (0)
Article Rating (No Votes)
Rate this article
Attachments
There are no attachments for this article.
Comments
There are no comments for this article. Be the first to post a comment.
Full Name
Email Address
Security Code Security Code
Related Articles RSS Feed
Managing temporary files with systemd-tmpfiles on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Viewed 9715 times since Sun, Nov 22, 2020
Top 4 Reasons for Node Reboot or Node Eviction in Real Application Cluster (RAC) Environment
Viewed 99909 times since Thu, Jun 21, 2018
debian How to Upgrade Debian 8 Jessie to Debian 9 Stretch
Viewed 2401 times since Sun, Sep 23, 2018
Fałszujemy rozpoznania skanerów #2
Viewed 3046 times since Mon, May 21, 2018
Linux nslookup Command Examples for DNS Lookup
Viewed 9072 times since Sat, Sep 29, 2018
How to run command or code in parallel in bash shell under Linux or Unix
Viewed 3323 times since Tue, Aug 6, 2019
high swap space utilization in LINUX
Viewed 6622 times since Fri, Jul 13, 2018
Linux File Systems (mkfs, mount, fstab) ext4
Viewed 3248 times since Sat, Jun 2, 2018
Linux - How to get Memory information
Viewed 1995 times since Fri, Jun 8, 2018
12 Linux Rsync Options in Linux Explained
Viewed 12123 times since Wed, Oct 31, 2018