unable to get past username stage in linux mint 14
 

Hello all,i am trying with utter frustration to get past the username/password in linux mint 14.I have just recently put linux on, and i knew that i had written down and put in the correct user name etc.But now i have logged in for the second time and it just wont accept my username.I guess the first part of my ranting, is there a problem regarding linux and remembering passwords or is there something i am doing wrong.I have looked over previous topics on this problem,and found the solution of going into recovery mode and then finding the root drop to root shell workable,but after going into recovery mode i cannot see or find the menu containing the root option.Again is there something i am missing. i have been on this for days and cant take anymore pain.When replying could you please consider that i am not only new to linux but also computers. thanks very much

Are you sure you did not (for example) inadvertently have CAPS LOCK on when typing the password initially, or maybe you had caps lock on when you tried to log in?

It sounds like a simple mistake - mistyping one character maybe, or mistyping when you initially entered the password.

Alternatively, have you tried another Linux distro like Ubuntu, or Fedora? Ubuntu especially is very popular, easy to use and install, and works well.

Also, are you sure your hardware is good? E. g. is it a brand-new computer, or one that previously had Windows on it?

Does it say that the password is invalid or does something happen after you enter the password and after that it goes back to the login screen?

Can you login in a console? Press <ctrl><alt><F1> (that is, press control plus alt plus function key F1). Type your username and when prompted for the password, type it and press <enter>; while typing the password, nothing will be shown (it looks like nothing happens, just type it and press <enter>).

If that works, you can shutdown with sudo shutdown -h now (just to prevent you from forcing the computer off because you don't know another way).

Let's us hear how far you get.

Hi I have also had a few hicups with signing into mint 14. Sometimes it fails to display name as you type it in although you can see the curser moving. When i entered my username i used a capital at the beginning, but found when logging in i had to use only lower case for username. (Password excepts cAPs)

wim and rylan thank-you for your quick and helpful replies.In regards to my username and passwords ive used the same for years, but i have tried all variations of this and still not get in.Wims suggestion was great and i got to the stage of putting in my password but the same thing happened again, it goes to the username box and there it sits and sits and sits which is pretty much about 4 days of sitting now.I still cant access my computer and its getting upsetting, surely linux was not meant to be this hard ,especially just for a simple thing like logging in.I think if it this hard now how am i going to handle the system as a whole.I am trying linux in preference over windows but gee this is grating on me, with no offence to anyone reading this.

Before continuing with password reset exercises or a possible re-install, redo the <ctrl><alt><F1> exercise; enter the password when you are prompted for the username (login) but don't press <enter>; does it show exactly as what you meant? It's possible that the keyboard layout has changed somewhere along the line.

You can, by the way, get back to the graphical environment with <alt><F7> (sometimes <alt><F8>). Pressing <ctrl> as well while in a console is not necessary to switch consoles.

If the password shows exactly as you expect, it's time for password reset exercises; plenty of info can be found on the web. If you get stuck with that, let us know.

Try this

Good luck to you

I think post #3 covered that ;) Although I'm not sure what the code is supposed to do (exept for moving a file out of the way); reference would be nice where you found it so it can be placed in perspective.

Thank-you guys for trying to help me but nothing is working,are you able to please give me the easy steps or a link to uninstalling mint 14 from my computer, bearing in mind it needs to be done from the boot menu.After five days i cant take this torture any more.Its not like im trying to break into the main frame computers of either the cia or fbi, but it certainly feels that way.

Put the live CD or flash drive from where you installed originally and select to install again that will whipe your hardrive clean from the current settings. When you get to the part to create an user create a password for the user too, but select the option of allowing the user in automatically without password. Still though create an admin password for whent you have install new programs and run updates.
Good look to you