How To Reset Root Password In Fedora Linux 39, 38, 37, 36

Have you forgotten the root password in Fedora? Or do you want to change the root user password in your Fedora system? No problem! This step by step guide walks you through the steps to change or reset root password in Fedora Linux operating system.

Reset Root User Password in Fedora Step by Step

We can change the forgotten root password from Emergency mode in Fedora in two ways. The first method should work on latest Fedora 39, 38 versions and CentOS Stream 9 systems. And the second method should work on older Fedora versions.

Method 1 - Change Root Password in Fedora 39, 38

This steps provided below are officially tested on the latest Fedora 39 and 38 versions.

Step 1 - Edit Boot Entry in Grub Menu

Power on your Fedora system and press ESC key until you see the GRUB boot menu. Once the GRUB menu is appeared, use the arrow keys to select the Fedora kernel you want to boot and press 'e' to edit the boot parameters.

Here is the Grub menu of Fedora 38:

Step 2 - Boot into Emergency Mode

In the next screen, you will see all boot parameters. Find the line that starts with "linux ($root)/vmlinuz..." and press the END key or CTRL+e to go to the end of this line.

Add the following line at the end:

rw init=/bin/bash

After adding the line, press CTRL+x or F10 to boot into emergency mode.

Step 3 - Reset Forgotten Root Password in Fedora

Since you used rw init=/bin/bash, your root filesystem should already be mounted as read-write. However, if you need to remount it, you can use: mount -o remount,rw /.

Now, reset the root password by typing passwd and then entering a new password when prompted.

passwd

Or,

passwd root

Confirm the new password by retyping it.

Step 4 - Enable SELinux Relabeling

After resetting the root password, you should relabel the filesystem to ensure that the security contexts are correct if your system uses SELinux.

To ensure SELinux contexts are correct on your next boot, create a file that will trigger automatic relabeling:

touch /.autorelabel

Step 5 - Reboot Fedora

Finally, exit the single user mode and initialize the rest of the boot process by running the following command:

exec /sbin/init

Wait for SELinux relabeling process to complete. It will take a few minutes depending upon the filesystem's size and speed of your hard drive.

If you only see the Plymouth boot screen, simply press ESC key to view the SELinux progress.

Step 6 - Login to Fedora

After the filesystem relabeling is completed, you can log in to your Fedora system with new root password.

If you can able to switch to the root user with the new password, congratulations! You have successfully reset root user password in Fedora 39 or 38.

The above steps are same for Fedora 37 and older versions. I also have provided a slightly different method to change root user password in Fedora Linux in the following sections.

Method 2 - Change Root Password in Fedora 37, 36, 35

The following steps have been officially tested on Fedora 37, 36 and 35 versions. The steps provided below are also same for resetting root password in older Fedora versions and Fedora Silverblue edition.

Step 1 - Edit Boot Entry in Grub Menu

Power on your Fedora system and press ESC key until you see the GRUB boot menu. Once the GRUB menu is appeared, choose the Kernel you want to boot and hit e to edit the selected boot entry.

Step 2 - Find ro Kernel Parameter

In the next screen, you will see all boot parameters. Find the parameter named ro.

Step 3 - Modify ro Kernel Parameter

Replace the 'ro' parameter with 'rw init=/sysroot/bin/sh'(without quotes, of course). Please mind the space between "rw" and "init=/sysroot...". After modifying it, the kernel parameter line should look like below.

After changing the parameters as shown above, press Ctrl+x to enter into the emergency mode i.e. single user mode. You will be again prompted to press the ENTER key for maintenance.

Step 4 - Mount Root File System in Read/Write Mode

From the emergency mode, enter the following command to mount root (/) file system in read/write mode.

chroot /sysroot/

Step 5 - Reset Forgotten Root Password in Fedora

Now change the root password with passwd command:

passwd root

Enter the root password twice.

For demonstration purpose, I have used a simple password. But I highly suggest you to use a strong password.

Step 6 - Enable SELinux Relabeling

After resetting the root password, run the following command to enable SELinux relabeling on reboot:

touch /.autorelabel

Heads Up: If you do not do SELinux relabeling, the boot process may fail. You may have to do a hard-reboot and start back at step 1.

Step 7 - Reboot Fedora

Finally, exit the single user mode and reboot the Fedora system to normal mode by running the following command:

exit

reboot

Wait for SELinux relabeling process to complete. It will take a few minutes depending upon the filesystem's size and speed of your hard drive.

If you only see the Plymouth boot screen, simply press ESC key to view the SELinux progress.

Step 8 - Login to Fedora

After the filesystem relabeling is completed, you can log in to your Fedora system with new root password.

Conclusion

In conclusion, resetting the root user password in Fedora from single-user mode is a straightforward process that can be accomplished by following these simple steps:

• Boot into single-user mode by adding the rw init=/bin/bash or rw init=/sysroot/bin/sh parameter to the kernel line in the GRUB menu.
• Remount the root filesystem with read-write permissions using the mount -o remount,rw / command.
• Change the root password using the passwd command.
• Enable SELinux relabeling by executing the touch /.autorelabel command.
• Reboot the system using the reboot command.

Once the system has rebooted, you should be able to log in using the new root password.

As you can see, the steps to reset forgotten root password in Fedora 39 and 38 and older versions are fairly easy and exactly same as resetting root password in RHEL and its clones like CentOS, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux.

Always exercise caution with these administrative tasks, especially when working in a single-user mode or root shell, as they allow you to make critical changes to your system.