RHEL7 : How to enter Single user mode

Indeed, the days have changed. The old school boys like me were happy with init.d and writing 1 in grub to boot into single user mode. RHEL7 demands something else these days. I am noting down such changes which I came across while working with RHEL7. If you are reading this I hope it will be of some use to you.
Forgot root password? Any other reason you need to go to single user mode? Here is how you do it.

  • Reboot your RHEL7 machine
  • Edit your grub config parameters by hitting the ‘e’ key
  • Go to the kernel parameters lines and append “rd.break” at the end of line

1.1

  • Hit CTRL-x to boot with these changes
  • You are in single user mode with limited commands now.
  • Run following commands to remount the /sysroot directory and then chroot to it
    •  mount –oremount,rw /sysroot
    •  chroot /sysroot

1.2

  • You are all set, you can use passwd command now to change your password
  • If selinux is enforcing you may need to run the following command to make sure your changes are saved.
    • touch /.autolebel

1.3

  • use CTRL-D to get back into your favorite runlevel

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