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I would like to boot Solaris to shell (root prompt) directly for recovery purposes. On linux I would pass a kernel option init=/bin/bash and it would directly boot me into shell without asking for password. How can I achieve the same for Solaris?

I realized the '-s' parameter, but that still asks for password. The official docs suggest booting an installer CD which I would like to avoid.

UPDATE I realized that another proprietary access method was available for me so this question is not that urgent for me, still I leave it up as it maybe interesting later and for others as well.

This is solaris 11 express on x86 hardware.

Both single mode -s and -m milestone=none asks for password:

Enter user name for system maintenance (control-d to bypass): root
Enter root password (control-d to bypass):
HopelessN00b
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cstamas
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1 Answers1

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Use the milestone=none boot flag:

If you are on SPARC, from the openboot prompt:

ok boot -m milestone=none

If you are on x86, adjust the grub boot entry the same way. The precise command will depend on the Solaris release.

Edit:

Not sure why you want to avoid booting from a CD but that's the simplest way to recover a lost root password. The alternatives seems overkill:

  • moving the disk to another Solaris on x86 machine, import its root pool and fix the password

  • installing a PXE boot server, boot from the network, import the pool, fix the password

  • find a remote server user account having passwordless ssh access to root or a user having the root role or sudo access on the target server.

jlliagre
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  • It is not much better compared to `-s` as it still asks for username/password which I do not know. Updated my question to specify the release. Thx. gave +1 anyways. – cstamas Jan 28 '15 at 20:22
  • I overlook the password point. You might have better titled your question "how do I recover or reset a lost root password on Solaris?" – jlliagre Jan 28 '15 at 20:28