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From: Mel <fbsd.questions@rachie.is-a-geek.net>
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Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:09:36 +0100
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Cc: jekillen <jekillen@prodigy.net>
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On Tuesday 11 March 2008 05:18:37 jekillen wrote:

> I have it shut down now incase that is the situation (someone was able to
> change or corrupt the root password) But it appears that it somehow has
> just gotten corrupted so it won't work. Is that possible.
> The long and short is I want to avoid having to re install the system
> and software. 

So boot into single user mode:
# fsck -p /
# mount -u /
# mount -o ro /usr
# env EDITOR=/usr/bin/vi vipw
On the root entry, change the part between the first and second colon (':') to 
a star ('*'), write and exit (:wq) and set password for using passwd command.
-- 
Mel

Problem with today's modular software: they start with the modules
    and never get to the software part.