I just installed Debian 5 however the install didn't ask me for a root password.
At any rate I can't log in because I don't know the root password.
Is there any way to regain access or do I have to install again?
You don't need a live CD.
This will replace "init" with a shell, you'll fall straight into a shell, however root will be read-only.
mount -o remount,rw /
will fix that.Change your password (mount /usr if you need to), umount everything, reboot.
To reset the password
First of all, thanks to those who replied. I believe your responses are valid and worthy of upvote, however, I did not try them (and I can't vote as of yet).
What I did was:
Similar to what Zoredache and Xerxes explained. There's probably many ways to go about it.
The last time I messed around with Linux was the .99 - 1.3 kernels.
I don't know the latest Debian 5, but if it didn't ask you for a root password, is it possible you just need to login using your normal user (say roygbiv) and run something like that to enable the root login:
sudo passwd root
The first password you'll be asked is your user password (roygbiv) and the next passwords will be your new root password.
You need to do that in Ubuntu (which is Debian based) if you want to activate the root user so I guess it's a possibility. I'm just surprised you weren't asked for the password during the installation process.
Addendum:
I should add that's it's often recommended not to enable root login when you have an installation without default root access. Just use sudo
with your own password when you want to do administrative tasks. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo.