1. At the LILO boot prompt, enter (boot) into your system using single user mode with your preferred method:

• linux 1
• linux single
• linux init=1

Some distros actually need the root password to boot into single user mode, in this case bypass with linux init=/bin/sh.

2. Type passwd to reset the root password. Once again, some distros will ask you for the old root password before you can set a new one. If this is the case, you have to manually edit /etc/shadow and remove the encrypted password like the following example:

Original /etc/shadow:
root:abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz01234567890:11596:0:99999:7:-1:-1:134539268

Basically you need to remove the bold text from the above example (this should be the first line of your file), since it is your password in encrypted form everyone's will be different.

Modified /etc/shadow:
root::11596:0:99999:7:-1:-1:134539268

Reboot your system and log with no password then reset with passwd. Now your system should be back up and running with the new root password, this time try not to forget it, but if you do at least now you know how to get around it.

Alot of the time people will install X11 and then want to change their system configuration so that it doesn't load by default when the system boots, this is rather easy and can be done by the following few steps:

1. Edit /etc/inittab with your favourite text editor (e.g. pico /etc/inittab).

2. Change this line:

id:5:initdefault:

to this:

id:3:initdefault:

This will boot to run level 3... Multi-user, network, command line. Right above the line will be a section of comments explaining the run levels.

3. Save the changes and your done, the next time you reboot the system you will no longer have X11 starting on boot. To run it later, simply type startx (e.g. startx kde or startx gnome if you have both installed).

Something similar can be done if you want your LILO boot loader to change from graphics to text when the system boots, just follow these quick steps:

1. Edit /etc/lilo.conf with your favourite text editor (e.g. pico /etc/lilo.conf).

2. Find the following line:

message=/boot/message

and add a # infront of it so it looks like this:

#message=/boot/message

3. Save the file and then run LILO by typing /sbin/lilo.

Next time you reboot you will get a text only boot loader.