[freebsd-questions] root passwd change

[Lowell Gilbert]

Eric Pogroski <pogrose at twcny.rr.com> writes:

> here's whats needed:
> 
> <presuming a full, multiuser system is running>
> # shutdown now
> # <hit return at the prompt for 'sh'> (csh & tcsh both go fubar in
> single-user mode) <at this point, all of the filesystems are
> still mounted> 
> # passwd root	<--- this is important - lost one system by NOT doing
> this
> # exit	-or-	reboot	<--- I prefer a reboot, but that's me.

Oh, right; we're only trying to change the root password here.  That's
not actually affected by securelevel at all, so that was a red herring
for me to bring up securelevel in the first place.

> work's about 9 times out of 10. It's the tenth one that makes you bald
> from frustration... :)

You need the ability to invoke shutdown.  Since you don't have the
root password, you need some other account with either root (via sudo,
for example) or operator-group access.