Recovery mode. Login as root without password

[Joe Zeff]

On 02/16/2012 11:57 AM, Reindl Harald wrote:
> becasue it is mandatory and logical as pre-condition
> to disallow booting from external media

You know that, I know that and, I'd hope, everybody on this list knows 
that.  I can assure you, however, from almost a decade's experience 
doing tech support, that there are an awful lot of people out there who 
know just enough to block booting from external media but not enough to 
finish the job by setting a BIOS password.

It's a tad off topic, but that somehow reminded me of the time I was 
walking a network professional through configuring a router that he'd 
never worked with before.  (Neither had I, but unlike him, I had a cheat 
sheet.)  Password protecting the router was optional, and most people 
didn't bother.  He did, and I told him to be sure to write down the 
password Just In Case.  He assured me that it was something he wouldn't 
forget.

Of course, he'd not only gotten one of the settings wrong, he'd 
forgotten the password in the time it took the router to reboot and get 
tested.  I had to send him to OEM support to find out how to reset the 
router to factory default.  (I knew it wasn't too hard if you had 
physical access, but didn't have the instructions.)