Reset the Root Password on FreeBSD

Introduction

If you are locked out of your FreeBSD instance and have lost access to the root account, you need to boot into single-user mode and reset the root password. These steps apply to FreeBSD 10.x, 11.x, and 12.x.

How to Reset the Root Password on FreeBSD

1. Click the Server Restart icon in the Vultr customer portal.

   

2. Open the web console.

   

   You can also reboot the server from inside the web console. See the Web Console FAQ for more information.

3. At the boot menu, press 2 for single-user mode. The prompt happens early in the boot process. If you miss the prompt, you need to restart the server from the control panel and try again.

4. At the root prompt, type mount -u -a -o rw to remount the disk RW.
5. Type passwd to change the root password.
6. Reboot the server.