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I'm trying to reset password to root account on Slackware server (with Intel Atom on Intel motherboard and two HDDs). There is software RAID set up (devices mounted during boot: md0 - /, md1 - /usr, md2 - /var, md3 - /tmp, md4 - /home).

What I tried (with LILO boot options):

  1. linux single: normal login prompt doesn't let me in without root password

  2. linux init=/bin/bash (with or without `rw' - no difference): I got prompt as user (none) - no access to passwd. After that I tried mounting the drives:

    mount /dev/md0 /mnt/sys
mount /dev/md1 /mnt/sys/usr
mount /dev/md2 /mnt/sys/var

    System let me use passwd and it looked as change was successful. After reboot I still couldn't log in. Effect was the same when I tried deleting the password in /etc/shadow.

  3. booting from live cd/usb (for chroot/passwd): System boots straight to the local system (I set in bios to boot from cd and/or usb drive). This seems to be the simplest option, if there is some way to make this system boot as it is set up in BIOS.

Any sugestions how can I proceed?

Jan Kastor
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  • You only need to mount md0 after using init=/bin/bash and then open /etc/shadow. There, blank out the password field for root (it is colon separated). Sync, reboot then login as root with no password to a normally booted system. – caskey May 02 '15 at 09:37
  • @caskey I believe you mean /mnt/sys/etc/shadow – Cameron Kerr May 02 '15 at 12:19
  • you need chroot /mnt/sys and use the passwd from there to change the root password – c4f4t0r May 02 '15 at 12:44
  • @caskey I forgot to add that I also tried editing /etc/shadow. I could open the file and save it but after reboot there was still non-blank root password required. – Jan Kastor May 02 '15 at 19:29

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After changing BIOS option to treat removable drives as fixed size I was able to boot from usb (seems it's a known problem with Intel D945GCLF board - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1113472) and resync raid drives (raid1 array was working with only one disk).

I still couldn't log into root account (blanking/changing password had no effect, I didn't find where/how it's locked), but I managed to reset password and log with diffrent user with enough priviledge to su into root prompt.

Jan Kastor
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