Administrator's privilege / password use lost
 

Hello, as single user, my automatic log-in on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS was suddenly lost and required a password originally installed. Attempting to turn the password log-in option off, as administrator, authentication was required but denied as the original password used to log-in was not accepted. Being programming illiterate,how do I go about regaining Administrator's privileges?

Hi: & Welcome to LQ.

You will have to reset the root password in "Recovery Mode".

Follow these instructions.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/2400...ative-password

If you type this at Google "linux reset root password"

There will be a small window from the results telling you how you can reset it and it goes to the link above. :)

Administrator's Privilege / Password use lost - not yet resolved
 

Hi, I am not sure if this is how to go about responding to the original post.
Thank you for the recommendations.
I have to enter a password in order to use my laptop after each shut down - this is the password I wish to deactivate.
However before I attempt any changes to the Administrator's Password that may lead to the loss of the use of the Laptop -
For legal purposes, I need to back up all my e-mails in Thunderbird (Version 60.2.1) to a Flash Drive for re-loading.
This at present is not possible -
Following instructions to download e-mails - Click on Menu Button then Troubleshooting Information option, then on Open Directory. There is no Thunderbird Profile Folder option as mentioned in the Back-Up Instructions.
Will it be possible to simply download (Not Up-Date as per 'Up-Dates') the newly released Ubuntu 18.04 so as to replace compromised Version 16.04 - or will this also compromise all my e-mails?
Thank you,
Vairag.

Fix your password first - do not reinstall until you have done so.

That will compromise all of your e-mails.

Don't upgrade or perform a fresh install w/o backing up first. Fix your password as well.

simply locate the .thunderbird folder (it starts with a dot, so it's hidden. your filemanager might not display it by default) in your home folder, and copy the complete folder to your flashdrive.
you can drop that back into your new or repaired system, it should Just Work (tm).

Login as "Admin" or root will not show you the same default folders as logged as "User". User's files are under /home/User

For non-legal purposes it is strongly recommended that you have all important data files backed up to external media.

Is the requirement that you don't want any accounts to have passwords?
This would be a very bad idea.

Hey there
 

Do you still have the usb/cd/dvd you used to install the OS?
I don't use ubuntu since 2012 so I don't know if it can still booted in live os mode.
But whatever, you need an usb with a live debian-based os.

Once you boot into the live OS mount the /mnt into your root partition.
To see what's your root partition you can do (as root):
# df
or
# fdisk -l

now mount the partition
# mount /dev/yourpartition /mnt
and enter in chroot
# chroot /mnt

now you can easily change yr password by just typing
# passwd youruser

Done!