[ale] howto force "give root password" prompt
John G. Heim
jheim at math.wisc.edu
Thu Dec 10 12:46:03 EST 2009
I have a problem with a vmware virtual machine. It's running debian/lenny.
After a power failure, it tends to not boot. It ssits at a prompt saying,
"Give root password for maintenance (or type control-D for normal startup."
I need to be able to get past this prompt if I'm not in the physical
presence of the machine. I can log into the vmware server and hard boot it.
But it comes up the same way. There is a vmware command for answering
console questions. But I don't know if it will work. Other than pulling the
plug, how can I test it? I want to somehow make it come up with that prompt
to see if the vmware answer command will let me get past it.
So this is not really a vmware question. It's just a linux question. What
causes a linux machine to come up asking if you want to enter maintenance
mode and can I artificially reproduce those conditions?
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