“I have an old Linux box that has been running as a
forgotten Web server/email relay for about a year and a half. When
I logged in to update the box, I found that all the passwords had
expired. No problem; I just rebooted and entered linux 1 at
the boot prompt to get into run level 1, single-user mode. From
there, I had root access without entering a password and I could
change the passwords on the box.”
“Just out of curiosity, I tried the same thing on a new Mandrake
7.1 box. Linuxconf came up and asked me for the root password
before I could get into the single-user mode. How do I get into a
Mandrake system if all the passwords are expired?”