Here's a short HowTo for resetting the root password to an empty string:
1) boot the computer - until GRUB comes up
2) In GRUB, press 'e' and add the following text to the boot parameters:
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single init=/bin/bash
4) Remount the harddisk read-write:
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mount -o remount,rw /dev/hda1
5) Edit /etc/shadow and the password hash for root with nothing. You will find something like this:
make it look like this:root:$1$verylonghashwithlettersandnumbers0:99999:7:::
6) Save the file and reboot. Now you should be able to login as root with no password.root:0:99999:7:::
[DETAILS]
1) In case your system disk ain't /dev/hda1, type:
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mount | grep "on / type"
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro,data=writeback)