From owner-freebsd-questions  Mon Sep 11 12:49:35 1995
Return-Path: questions-owner
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id MAA29803
          for questions-outgoing; Mon, 11 Sep 1995 12:49:35 -0700
Received: from mrblue.cmq.qc.ca (mrblue.cmq.qc.ca [204.19.130.10])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id MAA29787
          for <questions@FreeBSD.org>; Mon, 11 Sep 1995 12:49:28 -0700
Received: from cmq.qc.ca (204.19.130.21) by mrblue.cmq.qc.ca
 with SMTP (Apple Internet Mail Server 1.0); Mon, 11 Sep 1995 15:51:16 +0000
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 95 15:50:08 -0400
From: LPPelletier@cmq.qc.ca (Luc Pelletier)
Organization: Club Macintosh de Quebec
Subject: Passwd file?
To: questions@FreeBSD.org
Message-ID: <2232323.ensmtp@cmq.qc.ca>
Priority: normal
X-Mailer: ExpressNet/SMTP v1.1.5
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: questions-owner@FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

Here's the test I'm trying on my PC. I want to know how to recover if I ever
lose my root password.

Suppose I've lost my root password. I managed to create a boot diskette on
which I put a copy of the files passwd and master.passwd. Those files contains
only one entry for the root login (no passwd).

Once booted from the diskette, I mount my hard disk and copied both file on
it.
I rebooted from the hard disk and to my great surprise, I had to give my old
password
for the root in order to log in.

What is the trick here?   -Lpp...lost in space!!!