How to fix "can not open access to console the root account is locked"

howtofix.md

How to fix "can not open access to console the root account is locked"

I recently experienced this problem, but I only had answers that did not help. Then, I was able to get a hint from the short opinion of the Linux Forum.

This problem is related to the change of the drive. If it is not properly reflected in /etc/fstab, such an error may occur.

1. Download SystemRescueCD and make a bootdisk: https://www.system-rescue.org/

2. FDISK and MOUNT

   # fdisk -l    # find a drive
   # mkdir /mnt/tmp
   # mount -t ext4 /dev/sda2 /mnt/tmp    # mount -t [filesystem] [drive] [mountpoint]

3. Open the [mountpoint]/etc/fstab in text editor, and remove lines of the detacted devices

4. Save and reboot, and remove the bootdisk.

Done.

References

• https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/cannot-open-access-to-console-the-root-account-is-locked-parrot-sec-is-4175638175/
• http://www.htgsd.com/information-technology/fix-rpi-with-cannot-open-access-to-console-the-root-account-is-locked/

Thank you for the reply.

@NaolB02 In similar cases, what I usually check is the block UUID. I hope the following link will be helpful for you.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/658/linux-how-can-i-view-all-uuids-for-all-available-disks-on-my-system

I was trying to install some package on my kali linux which took long and then black out the screen with a single blinking cursor. It just stayed there so I powered it off. When I tried to restart it, it would bring the same error. I check the /etc/fstab file using SystemRescue but there seems nothing wrong. Do you know anyway of solving this?