Reset root password for Chromebook

How could I do this?

I tried:

putting the chromebook in dev mode
enabling debugging options
set the root password
browse as guest(also tried with a google account)
open shell ctrl + shift + t
enter shell and sudo su
enter password I set in debugging options window

Password is incorrect.

I tried also to recovering with Chrome extension, and after that normal mode was set again. Then I went back to development mode, did the same steps above. Getting the same result.

Any advice?

sites

Posted 2015-07-12T19:13:46.777

Reputation: 223

did you try just doing sudo su after logging into your Google account from within the Linux terminal? – Tommie C. – 2019-05-11T16:49:37.023

Answers

Starting from the desktop, logged in as a user[1], the following steps have solved this problem for me:

Press Ctrl+Alt+Forward Arrow (Ctrl+Alt+F2 on some machines. If your machine doesn't have F2, then try whichever key is two spaces to the right of Esc - typically it's an arrow facing to the right).
You should reach a "Developer Console" prompt, where the last line of text ends with localhost login:. Enter "root" and hit return.
Enter the root password you set previously (or just hit return if you didn't set a root password).

[1] It may be possible to reach this console without being logged in - I am not sure.

Ponkadoodle

Posted 2015-07-12T19:13:46.777

Reputation: 319

2Strangely, the empty password for the root user does not work for me on VT2. I can type 'chronos' at the login prompt and the password I had set for it, and it works, but not for 'root'. Once I'm logged in as 'chronos', I do 'sudo su', type the chronos password, and I'm root. I try to change the root password with passwd, and it tells me 'Authentication token lock busy'. – fulv – 2016-09-22T23:58:59.040

Good answer: it is required to a the text console (Ctrl-Alt-Fx) the first time because the chronos user doesn't have any password initially, meaning sudo doesn't work until chromeos-setdevpasswd has been used at least once. – MarcH – 2019-10-18T03:30:38.943

I just spent several hours trying to figure this out. In particular, Ctrl-Alt-F2 (AKA '->') was only showing me a blank, black screen. However, it turned out that there was still a login prompt running (just not showing on the screen)!

I was able to log in as root and run the 'chromeos-setdevpasswd' command to set a password, just by blindly pressing the right keys and hoping it would work. It did!

I didn't see this possibility mentioned in any of my search results, so thought I'd put it here in case it helps anyone. I'm using an Asus C202S Chromebook, with CHROMEOS_RELEASE_VERSION=10895.56.0 (according to /etc/lsb-release)

Warbo

Posted 2015-07-12T19:13:46.777

Reputation: 148

1.) localhost login: root password: The password is the password you set for enabling debugging features.

For Example: If your password that you set is: 12345678 then it will look like...

localhost login: root
password:12345678

2.) Now it should say: localhost ~ # enter chromeos-setdevpasswd and press enter it will look like...

localhost ~ # chromeos-setdevpasswd
password:

now enter a password to use for sudo su. Then verify your password.

Nathaniel Cooper

Posted 2015-07-12T19:13:46.777

Reputation: 1

-1

I found this to set up root password for chronos. Android App Testing on Chromebooks February 28, 2019

Need to start from "setting up developer mode initial reboot".

Gary Nowels

Posted 2015-07-12T19:13:46.777

Reputation: 1

1Please quote the essential parts of the answer from the reference link(s), as the answer can become invalid if the linked page(s) change. – DavidPostill – 2020-01-25T17:18:36.470