Resetting the Root Password of RHEL-8

Resetting the Root Password of RHEL-8

Resolution
1) Break the boot sequence by adding ‘rd.break’ at kernel stanza in grub. To do this, restart your system and when the GRUB splash screen comes:

1. Select/highlight the kernel you wish to boot using the up/down arrow keys.
2. Press the e key to edit the entry.
3. Select/highlight the line starting with the word kernel or linux.
4. Press the e key to edit the line.
5. Add ‘rd.break’ at the end.
6. Press ENTER to accept the changes.
7. Press the ‘ctrl + x’ key to boot the kernel with the modified command line.

2) The system will provide a shell which will be from initramfs:

.
.
Entering emergency mode. Exit the shell to continue.
Type "journalctl" to view system logs.
You might want to save "/run/initramfs/rdsosreport.txt" to a USB stick or /boot
after mounting them and attach it to a bug report.
switch_root:/#

3) Root filesystem will be mounted read-only at ‘sysroot’ directory:

switch_root:/# mount | grep -i sysroot
/dev/mapper/rhel-root on /sysroot type xfs (ro,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota)

4) Remount it with read-write mode:

switch_root:/# mount -o remount,rw /sysroot

5) Chroot into it:

switch_root:/# chroot /sysroot/

sh-4.4#

6) Change the password:

sh-4.4# passwd
Changing password for user root.
New password:
BAD PASSWORD: The password is shorter than 8 characters
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

 
7) Relabel the filesystem:

sh-4.4# touch /.autorelabel

8) Exit from the shell:

sh-4.4# exit
exit
switch_root:/#
switch_root:/# exit

9) The system will continue the paused booting sequence:

.
Starting Relabel all filesystems...
[  OK  ] Started Manage Sound Card St
localhost login: