How to Reset the Forgotten Root Password in RHEL/Centos 8

First, boot into your RHEL/Centos 8 system and select the kernel you wish to boot into. Next, interrupt the booting process by pressing ‘e’ on your keyboard.

On the next screen, locate that begins with kernel= and append the parameter rd.break and press Ctrl + x. On the next screen, ensure that you remount the sysroot directory with read and write permissions. By default, it is mounted with read-only access rights indicated as ro.


:/# mount | grep sysroot

Now remount the directory with read and write access.

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

Once again, confirm the access rights. Note that this time, the access rights have changed from ro (read-only) to rw.

:/# mount | grep sysroot

Next, run the command shown to mount the root file system in read and write mode.

:/# chroot /sysroot

Next, use the passwd command to reset the password. As usual, provide a new password and confirm it.

# passwd


At this moment you have successfully reset your password. The only part remaining is to enable file system relabelling. To do this execute:

:/# touch /.autorelabel

Finally, type exit and then log out to begin the relabelling process.

This usually takes a couple of minutes and once done, the system will reboot upon which you can log in as the root user with the new password.