It never asked me for a root password !?!?!?!?!!??

[Guest]

Well I just spent 4 hours installing debian (using netinstall) and it NEVER asked me for a root password.

WTF?!?

How do I get into it? I've tried all of the passwords I use as well as "password" "root" and "toor"

[geoffb]

Well I just spent 4 hours installing debian (using netinstall) and it NEVER asked me for a root password.

WTF?!?

How do I get into it? I've tried all of the passwords I use as well as "password" "root" and "toor"

Do you remember creating a user password?

It was the one before that.

You might have hit enter right through it (although I doubt it would allow this). Try a blank password.

[Jeroen]

If that fails, boot next time giving 'init=/bin/sh' as argument to the kernel, and reset the root password with the 'passwd' command. For lilo, as the prompt type 'linux init=/bin/sh', for grub, hit 'e' when you have you have selected the right entry in the menu).

Or easier perhaps, boot with a linux live-cd or a rescue cd, look for the partition in which your etc/passwd file is (cfdisk should give you insight into your partition table), and reset the root password by:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
(assuming the first partition on the first ide disk is your root partition, try hda2, 3, etc if the next step fails)
chroot /mnt
passwd
<type new root password twice>
reboot