@orb85750
Basically you boot in single user, edit /etc/shadow file and remove the password for the root user, save changes, reboot. You typically do not need any boot CDs for this.
One neat trick is:
Add "init=/bin/sh" to linux kernel boot command.
Then in shell:
mount -o remount,rw /
passwd
(enter the new password when prompted)
mount -o remount,ro /
sync
And then reset the system.
Different linux versions might have other easier means to do it, though. You could also ask google, which gives you detailed instructions for Redhat such as:
http://www.go2linux.org/fedora-centos-root-password-recoveryhttp://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-1193
