[ale] howto force "give root password" prompt

[John G. Heim]

I have a problem with a vmware virtual machine. It's running debian/lenny. 
After a power failure, it tends to not boot. It ssits at a prompt saying, 
"Give root password for maintenance (or type control-D for normal startup."

I need to be able to get past this prompt if I'm not in the physical 
presence  of the machine. I can log into the vmware server and hard boot it. 
But it comes up the same way. There is a vmware command for answering 
console questions. But I don't know if it will work. Other than pulling the 
plug, how can I test it? I want to somehow make it come up with that prompt 
to see if the vmware answer command will let me get past it.


So this is not really a vmware question. It's just a linux question. What 
causes a linux machine to come up asking if you want to enter maintenance 
mode and can I artificially reproduce those conditions?