Junos : How to recover root password for Junos

1. Reboot the system
2. From console, interrupt the boot routine:
   

           Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.
           Booting [kernel] in 9 seconds...
    
           < Press the space bar at this point > 
    

3. Enter into single-user mode:

           Type '?' for a list of commands, 'help' for more detailed help.
           ok  boot -s
   
   

4. If you have the following system output, enter recovery, hit enter and skip to step 8.
   
   Otherwise continue with next step.
   

           System watchdog timer disabled
           Enter full pathname of shell or 'recovery' for root password recovery or RETURN for /bin/sh: recovery
   
   

5. Enter the shell:

           System watchdog timer disabled
           Jan  1 00:36:47 init: /etc/spwd.db: No such file or directory
           Enter full pathname of shell or RETURN for /bin/sh:  
      

6. Mount the virtual file systems. (Note that it is not necessary to mount the jbase package; however the other packages still need to be mounted):

           NOTE: to go to multi-user operation, exit the single-user shell (with ^D)
           # cd /packages
           # ./mount.jbase
           Mounted jbase package on /dev/vn1...
           # ./mount.jkernel
           Mounted jkernel package on /dev/vn2...
           # ./mount.jroute
           Mounted jroute package on /dev/vn3...
    
   

7. Enter recovery mode:

           # /usr/libexec/ui/recovery-mode
    

8. Enter configuration mode and change the root authentication password:
   

           root> configure 
           Entering configuration mode
    
           [edit]
           root# set system root-authentication plain-text-password    
           New password:
           Retype new password:
   
   

9. Commit the changes, and exit configuration mode

           [edit]
           root # commit 
           commit complete
    
           [edit]
           root@router# exit 
           Exiting configuration mode
    
           root@router> exit 
    

10. Exit recovery mode and enter 'y' when prompted to reboot the system:

            Reboot the system? [y/n] y
            Terminated
    

    The system now reboots and changes made to root authentication are activated.