cant reset root passwd :Authentication token lock busy

[agenol]

Hi all,

I 'm trying to reset the root passwd on a private system (FC3).

I did the following:
reboot the system
interuppted GRUB
selected kernel/boot/vmlinux2.6 ...
selected e (to edit)
added "ro quiet splash rw init=/bin/bash"
pressed enter and booted


once I got the Bash prompt (bash-3.00#) Idid the following

bash-3.00# passwd root
Changing password for user root
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:

passwd: Authentication token lock busy
bash-3.00#

I rebooted the system and tried to logon but I could not logon as root. Wrong passwd.

Any ideas why? How can I reset the passwd?

I looked for some "lock" file or anything similar but found nothing.

Thanks!!

Agenol

[savage]

I've found a couple of posts on this -- the most promising suggests that your receiving that error because the filesystem is in read/only mode? If so you can make it read-write with the command:

mount -o remount,rw /

Other suggestions are manually removing the password from /etc/passwd.

Also is adding init=/bin/bash the same as booting to single-user mode? If not try single user mode by adding '-s' to the end of your kernel parameters in grub.

Good luck, Savage

[agenol]

first mount -o remount,rw /

then execute passwd

Will do.

Thanks for the help $avage!

agenol

[glennzo]

You guys are Linux gods! Tonight I needed to reset the root password on a new install of SAM Linux that I am playing with. Followed the advice here and presto! Worked like a charm! Did what Agenol said to do and got the same result. Added $avage's advice and all was well. Thanks for the helpful advice.