Applies to Platform: UTM 5.0 until 5.2.5
Last update: 16 Jun 2021
Warning
While losing the root password is a serious issue and might at a first impression let you think to have lost shell access to your Endian UTM system, there are at least two possible solutions:
- To change the password from the GUI.
- To reboot the Endian UTM Appliance in sigle user mode.
Note
Using the GUI
The easiest way to change the root password is to log in to the graphic administration interface, go to Menubar > System > Passwords and type the new password in the two rightmost textboxes , then click on the underneath Change Password button.
Rebooting in single user mode
To apply this solution, you need to be able to follow the whole shutdown and reboot process. Therefore, you need either a serial nullmodem cable and a workstation with serial interface and a terminal program, allowing to follow the process via serial console, or a monitor and a keyboard directly attached to the Appliance. The latter possibilities however may not be possible in the Appliance is a Mini. Follow this lesson to set up a serial console.
After you have connected the serial console or the video and keyboard, these are the necessary steps to recover the password:
- Reboot the appliance:
root@endian:~# reboot
- During the boot, you will see some informative messages about the hardware, then a graphical menu on a grey background will appear, entitled GNU GRUB. At this point, quickly Press a cursor button to stop the countdown, or the system will boot automatically.
- Select the first menu item, then press the 'e' key to edit the grub starting commands. The grub configuration, similar to the following one, appears:
- Use the cursor keys to scroll down the configuration, until you reach a line that starts with the word linux. Write at the end of this line a single space, followed by the word init=/bin/bash:
- Press CTRL+X or F10 to resume the boot process
- After the boot process has completed, you will end up with this command line prompt at the bottom of the screen (you might need to click a key to see the prompt):
bash-4.2#
- The filesystem might be mounted in read only mode, but you need write access to it. To make sure filesystem is mounted in read/write mode, type the command:
bash-4.2# mount -o rw,remount /
- Now you can change the root password:
bash-4.2#passwd
- You will be asked to enter the new root password twice.
- Make sure that the changes made to the password's file are written to disk:
bash-4.2# sync
- Finally, reboot the system.
bash-4.2# reboot
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