diff --git a/perl-xCAT-2.0/xCAT/Utils.pm b/perl-xCAT-2.0/xCAT/Utils.pm
index c634f681d..30f976f2f 100644
--- a/perl-xCAT-2.0/xCAT/Utils.pm
+++ b/perl-xCAT-2.0/xCAT/Utils.pm
@@ -8,6 +8,41 @@ require xCAT::Schema;
 require Data::Dumper;
 require xCAT::NodeRange;
 require DBI;
+our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
+our @EXPORT_OK = qw(genpassword);
+
+#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+=head3    genpassword
+    returns a random string of specified length or 8 if none given
+    Arguments:
+      length of string requested
+    Returns:
+      string of requested length or 8
+    Globals:
+        none
+    Error:
+        none
+    Example:
+         my $salt = genpassword(8);
+    Comments:
+        none
+=cut
+
+#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+sub genpassword {
+#Generate a pseudo-random password of specified length
+     my $length = shift;
+     unless ($length) { $length = 8; }
+     my $password='';
+     my $characters= 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890';
+     srand; #have to reseed, rand is not rand otherwise
+     while (length($password) < $length) {
+           $password .= substr($characters,int(rand 63),1);
+    }
+    return $password;
+}
+
+
 
 #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/xCAT-server-2.0/lib/xcat/plugins/packimage.pm b/xCAT-server-2.0/lib/xcat/plugins/packimage.pm
index 99ff819ef..3bf557261 100644
--- a/xCAT-server-2.0/lib/xcat/plugins/packimage.pm
+++ b/xCAT-server-2.0/lib/xcat/plugins/packimage.pm
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ use File::Path;
 use File::Copy;
 use Cwd;
 use File::Temp;
+use xCAT::Utils qw(genpassword);
 Getopt::Long::Configure("bundling");
 Getopt::Long::Configure("pass_through");
 
@@ -83,6 +84,21 @@ sub process_request {
 
 	# add the xCAT post scripts to the image
 	copybootscript($installroot, $osver, $arch, $profile, $callback);
+   my $passtab = xCAT::Table->new('passwd');
+   if ($passtab) {
+      (my $pent) = $passtab->getAttribs({key=>'system',username=>'root'},'password');
+      if ($pent and defined ($pent->{password})) {
+         my $pass = $pent->{password};
+         my $shadow;
+         open($shadow,">","$installroot/netboot/$osver/$arch/$profile/rootimg/etc/shadow");
+         unless ($pass =~ /^\$1\$/) {
+            $pass = crypt($pass,'$1$'.genpassword(8));
+         }
+         print $shadow "root:$pass:13880:0:99999:7:::\n";
+         close($shadow);
+      }
+   }
+
 
     my $verb = "Packing";
     if ($method =~ /nfs/) {
diff --git a/xCAT-server-2.0/share/xcat/netboot/rh/genimage b/xCAT-server-2.0/share/xcat/netboot/rh/genimage
index 6d26d4c83..e748465a4 100755
--- a/xCAT-server-2.0/share/xcat/netboot/rh/genimage
+++ b/xCAT-server-2.0/share/xcat/netboot/rh/genimage
@@ -397,6 +397,22 @@ sub generic_post { #This function is meant to leave the image in a state approxi
       print $cfgfile "ONBOOT=yes\nBOOTPROTO=dhcp\nDEVICE=$_\n";
       close($cfgfile);
    }
+   open($cfgfile,">>","$installroot/netboot/$osver/$arch/$profile/rootimg/etc/securetty");
+   print $cfgfile "ttyS0\n";
+   print $cfgfile "ttyS1\n";
+   close($cfgfile);
+   my @passwd;
+   open($cfgfile,"<","$installroot/netboot/$osver/$arch/$profile/rootimg/etc/passwd");
+   @passwd = <$cfgfile>;
+   close($cfgfile);
+   open($cfgfile,">","$installroot/netboot/$osver/$arch/$profile/rootimg/etc/passwd");
+   foreach (@passwd) {
+      if (/^root:/) {
+         s/^root:\*/root:x/
+      }
+      print $cfgfile $_;
+   }
+   close($cfgfile);
    open($cfgfile,">","$installroot/netboot/$osver/$arch/$profile/rootimg/etc/rc3.d/S60gettyset");
    print $cfgfile "#!/bin/bash\n"; 
    print $cfgfile "for i in `cat /proc/cmdline`; do\n";