In this article, you will learn, how to recover Root Password in CentOS 6 or other Red hat based Linux OS. #centlinux #linux #recovery
Table of Contents
Problem Statement:
As we know that, the root is the superuser in every Linux distros. We often come to situations, where, the root password is not available. Although it is trivial to reset root password, if you have a user with sudo rights. otherwise it becomes a little tricky. To reset the password of root user we required physical access to the machine or in case of virtual machines we need console access via respective VM Manager.
In this post, we will reset the root password of a RHEL 6 Server.
Read Also: Create OpenLDAP Address Book in CentOS 7
Recover Root Password in CentOS 6:
Start your RHEL 6 machine and try to login with root user.
![CentOS 6 Startup CentOS 6 Startup](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-304.png)
![CentOS 6 CLI Login Prompt CentOS 6 CLI Login Prompt](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-305.png)
We could’t login to our RHEL 6 machine, because we didn’t know the root password.
Login with another user and restart the machine.
![CentOS 6 CLI Reboot CentOS 6 CLI Reboot](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-306.png)
At GRUB boot menu, press e to edit the menu entry.
![CentOS 6 GRUB Menu CentOS 6 GRUB Menu](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-307.png)
![CentOS 6 Edit GRUB Menu CentOS 6 Edit GRUB Menu](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-308.png)
Go the line that contains kernel command and press e to edit it.
![CentOS 6 GRUB Edit Kernel Command image 309](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-309.png)
![CentOS 6 GRUB Edit Kernel Command (Current) CentOS 6 GRUB Edit Kernel Command (Current)](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-310.png)
Append 1 at the end of this command and press <ENTER> to save changes.
![CentOS 6 GRUB Edit Kernel Command (New) CentOS 6 GRUB Edit Kernel Command (New)](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-311.png)
![CentOS 6 GRUB Menu (New) CentOS 6 GRUB Menu (New)](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-312.png)
Press b to boot the machine.
![CentOS 6 Single User CLI CentOS 6 Single User CLI](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-313.png)
The system now boots into Single User mode, without asking for any password.
Use the passwd command to reset the password of root.
![CentOS 6 Single User CLI (passwd) CentOS 6 Single User CLI (passwd)](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-314.png)
Restart the machine and login with new password.
![CentOS 6 Single User CLI (reboot) CentOS 6 Single User CLI (reboot)](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-315.png)
![CentOS 6 CLI (root user) CentOS 6 CLI (root user)](https://centlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-316.png)
root password of your CentOS / RHEL 6 machine has been recovered.