Can I enable the root user account from the log in screen when I am locked out of the machine?

Hello everyone,
I am working on my friends mac to get it ready to sell. I went into the advanced options of the user and changed the name of the account. That's all I changed. I did read the warning that said if anything was changed it could cause damage, that's why I only changed the name of the user account. I didn't want to mess with anything else. Well, needless to say, I am locked out of the machine. Apparently the root user, system administrator, account was not enabled and I am stuck at the screen that I can get to with my installation disc. So how can I enable the root user account and get back onto the machine from the screen I am at? Can I enable the root user from terminal? I spent a good 8 hours yesterday researching this topic and have come up empty. Changing passwords from commands in terminal is not the problem. I am given just one account to choose from to log on and it's not accepting the password because of the changes I made in the advanced options menu.
Is there any hope of getting this thing going again? Or have I just screwed myself over?
Thanks for your help!
Leah

You can reset the password.
http://pondini.org/OSX/Password.html
Do you need to recover data from it before you sell it? If not you can just wipe the disk and prepare it for sale.
See > Apple What to do before selling or giving away your Mac
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5189?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Also See Thomas Reed's How to Prepare your Mac for sale
http://www.thesafemac.com/how-to-prepare-your-mac-for-sale/
and this thread
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5474062?tstart=0

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Can I enable the root user account from the log in screen when I am locked out of the machine?

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