Troubleshooting • Re: Can Not Open Access to Console the Root Account is Locked

You can't fix it from the prompt it gives as there is no root password set (and there shouldn't be).

You have options:

1. Make sure all drives that your Pi expects are connected at boot.
2. Reconfigure your pi to boot into a limited shell for debugging:
   1. Shut down the Pi
   2. Pull the SD card
   3. Using a USB card reader plug it into another computer. If prompted to format a partition do not do so.
   4. Open cmdline.txt in a text editor.
   5. Add the following to the end of the line:

      Code:

       init=/usr/bin/bash

      making sure the file's contents remain on a single line.
   6. Replace the SD card in the Pi
   7. Reboot
   8. Debug in the minimal shell you are presented with.
   9. Once fixed remove the addition made above to cmdline.txt
3. Use another Linux computer (which could be the same Pi booting from a different SD card).
   1. Shut down the Pi
   2. Pull the SD card
   3. Using a USB card reader plug it into another Linux computer.
   4. Mount the SD card's root partition.
   5. Identify and fix the error.
   6. Replace the SD card in the Pi
   7. Reboot

Have you made any changes to /etc/fstab? Broken entries or drives/partitions in there not being present at boot are the most common causes I've seen on here of the error message you're asking about.

Statistics: Posted by thagrol — Thu Mar 07, 2024 12:35 am

---