recovering debian root password

[sl4ck3r]

what you need to do is download the knoppix live cd (or any live cd)
burn it and then boot from it and then do what qub said to do once at a command line:

mount /dev/hda /mnt/gentoo
chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
passwd

this will reset the root password on your system. then just reboot to your hard drive, not the live cd and you should be fine. no need to reinstall or install anything, it runs off the cd

also you should not be logging in as root anyway, bad idea. log in as a normal user and if you need root access, just type su and give the root password at a prompt. this is temporary and is fine for editing system files

[innodonni]

Er...guys, there is such a thing as a boot floppy you know. Much smaller to download.

[lakerdonald]

...

you can however backup all of your important files before you reinstall even without the root password. boot up from a linux floppy (tinfoil hat, floppy-fw) or cd (install cd, knoppix) and mount your linux partition and copy the files to a zip disk or cd etc.

-lakerdonald