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Reset root password

Updated Mar 27, 2021 ·

Tasks​

  1. Assume you have lost the root user password. Fix and reset it.

Solution​

1. Reboot into single-user mode​

Start or reboot your system. When the GRUB menu appears, use the arrow keys to select the appropriate kernel entry (usually the default one) and press e to edit.

Find the line starting with linux or linux16, move to the end of the line containing ro (which stands for read-only), and add init=/bin/bash at the end of the line. Press Ctrl+X or F10 to boot into single-user mode with a root shell.

Example:

linux /vmlinuz-5.15.0-1.el8.x86_64 root=/dev/mapper/rhel-root ro init=/bin/bash

2. Remount the root filesystem as read-write​

The root filesystem is initially mounted as read-only. Remount it as read-write to make changes:

mount -o remount,rw /

3. Reset the root password​

Use the passwd command to set a new password for the root user. Enter the new password when prompted:

passwd

Example:

Changing password for user root.
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

4. Reboot your system​

After resetting the password, reboot your system to exit the single-user mode and start up normally:

reboot

5. Login with the new root password​

Once the system has restarted, login as root using the new password you just set.