With FreeBSD 5.4 and above the booting procedure is slightly changed. Under ilder version
of FreeBSD use boot -s option at Ok prompt.
However, with version FreeBSD 5.4+ you don't have to type any command. Here is the
procedure to boot FreeBSD into a single user mode to reset root password.

In this tip I will explain how to boot FreeBSD into a single user mode to reset root
password.

Procedure

Step # 1: Start FreeBSD server/workstation

Step # 2: Press Enter key at boot loader

At Welcome to FreeBSD! boot menu press spacebar key to pause default booting

Type number 4 key (type 4 number) to boot into single user mode
Next you will see following prompt from system:
When prompted Enter full pathname of shell or RETURN for /bin/sh:

Press Enter key to boot into single user mode. Next, you will be immediately dropped into
a single user mode without a root password.

You need to remount / (root) file system in read and write mode with mount command, type
following two commands:
# mount -u /   # mount -a

Setup a new password with passwd command:
# passwd

Next type exit command to boot FreeBSD into multi-user mode environment:
# exit
OR You can just reboot the system:
# sync;sync
# reboot

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