I forgot my root password, how do i recover it?

I've tried booting into single user mode in GRUB, but it still asks me for the password to do maintenance. Then, i press ctrl-D to continue, and it just boots up GNOME... i don't get a root command prompt to change the password at all. How do i change the password?

OH, sorry, i am running Debian Etch.

This should get you right again.
http://www.debiantutorials.org/content/view/223/286/

Ok, i did that... but now, it wont let me type anything into the field. It says

Enter new UNIX password:

but then it wont let me type anything.

For security reasons you will not see anything being typed.
Prevents "shoulder surfing".
Just type the password, press Enter and it will ask you to type it again.

Thanks to the heads-up to my little site, raw.

No problem, great resources you got there. Shame it's all Debian.
J/K ... it's good to have you here, your knowledge will help out a great deal since
I have about {--} that much experience with Deb. We would install it with SSH only
at the DC and all the rest was up to the customer. We provided NO support
unless customer wanted to use "Professional Services"! At $150 an hour we didn't see
much action on the Deb servers.
And if no one said it - Welcome to BC

Use knoppix, it's worked for me in the past. Haven't used this particular how-to, but it looks good.

http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-reset-a-f...rd-with-knoppix