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July 20, 2026

Root Login Issues

If you log in as root to the Unified Access Gateway console with the correct username and password and get a "Login incorrect" error, check for keyboard mapping issues and reset the root password.

There are several reasons why a login error occurs:

  • the keyboard used does not map certain password characters correctly according to the keyboard definition of Unified Access Gateway
  • the password expired. The root password expires 365 days after deploying the OVA file.
  • the password was not set correctly when the appliance was deployed. This is a known issue with older versions of Unified Access Gateway.
  • the password has been forgotten.

To test that the keyboard is mapping characters correctly, try entering the password in response to the "Login:" username prompt. This allows you to see each password character and may identify where characters are being misinterpreted.

For all other causes, reset the root password of the appliance.

Note: To reset the root password you must have the following information:

  • login access to vCenter
  • vCenter login password
  • permission to access the appliance console

If you have set up a Grub 2 boot loader menu password for the appliance, you will need to enter this as part of this procedure.

Procedure

  1. Restart the appliance from vCenter and immediately connect to the console.

  2. When the GRUB bootloader screen appears, quickly use the UpArrow and DownArrow keys to stop the countdown timer.

  3. Press e to edit the boot configuration.

  4. On the GRUB prompt, enter the GRUB username and GRUB password.

    The kernel boot parameters is displayed. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the line that starts with linux.

  5. Remove all instances of console= and vconsole= key-value pairs.

  6. Go to the of the line and add init=/bin/bash and then press Ctrl + X to proceed with the boot process.

  7. On the bash-5.1# prompt, enter the following command to remount the system’s root as read/write. mount -o remount,rw /

  8. Run this command to change the root password.

    passwd root

    You see the message Changing the password for user root.

    Set the new password.

    New password:
    
    Retype new password:
    

    Result

    passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

  9. Run this command. Ensure that there are no typos when you enter the command.
    touch /. autorelabel

  10. Run this command to reboot the appliance.
    /usr/sbin/reboot -f

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