cool ...i didn't thought of sudo but bottom line sudo to root is working. so is this the only way to get root access ??  is there any way to recover root password ?

did you try to ssh into the VM and then "sudo su -"  ..type administrator password

it works like a charm..thanks dynamox.

Sounds like you have the filesystem mounted read-only... Are you in single user mode or something?

for me it's not working either

administrator@hostname1:~> sudo su -
[sudo] password for root:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for root:

Hello ss1,

Here are the step required to reset the root password.

To reset the root password for InsightIQ, follow these steps:

1. Reboot the InsightIQ VM.
2. Press SHIFT or ESC at the grub prompt.
3. Select your image.
4. Highlight the line that begins with kernel and press 'e' to edit.
5. Replace ro to rw and add init=/bin/bash.
6. Press enter, then press b to boot your system.
7. Your system will boot up to a passwordless root shell.
8. Type in passwd <username> to set a new password.
9. Type sync and press Enter.
10. Remount the root partition as read-only by typing the following and then pressing Enter: # mount -o remount,ro /
11. Use the VM management control panel to reset the VM by right-clicking the VM, then selecting Power > Reset.

Note: The reboot command on the command-line interface does not work.