[$] Locked root and rescue mode

Fedora is among the group of Linux distributions that, by default, lock
out the root account such that it does not have a password and cannot be
logged into. But, traditionally, “rescue mode” boots the system into
single-user
mode, which requires a root password—difficult to provide if it
does not exist. A Fedora proposal to remove the need for the password in
that case, and just drop into a root shell, does not seem likely to go far
in that form,
but it would seem to have pointed toward some better solutions for the
underlying problem.