Booting and Shutting Down Oracle^® Solaris 11.4 Systems

How to Boot to a Single-User State to Resolve a Bad root Shell or Password Problem

Before You Begin

Ensure that your role has the appropriate rights profiles to perform this procedure. See Using Rights Profiles to Administer Boot Features.

1. Depending on the platform, do one of the following:
   • For SPARC platforms:
     1. Bring the system to the ok PROM prompt.

        $ init 0

     2. Boot the system to a single-user state.

        ok boot -s

   • For x86 platforms:
     1. Reboot a running system with the –p option of the reboot command.

        $ reboot -p

     2. When the GRUB menu is displayed, select the appropriate boot entry, then type e to edit that entry.
     3. Using the arrow keys, navigate to the $multiboot line, then type –s at the end of the line.
   • To exit the GRUB edit menu and boot the entry you just edited, press Control-X. If you have a system with UEFI firmware, and you are not using a serial console, pressing F10 also boots the entry.
2. Correct the shell entry in the /etc/passwd file.

   $ vi /etc/password

3. Reboot the system.