Hello,

I'm new to Linux Mint (history of Windows up through W10). I just received a new tower with Linux Mint Pre-loaded. The seller, Eight Virtues (EV), established a User ID (ID) and Password (PW). Now that it is in my hands, I'd like to establish a new ID and PW. I'm not finding any obvious way of doing so and while EV has answered other questions, this particular question has been ignored through multiple email attempts.

The ID and PW established by EV also seem to be linked to all Linux accounts, etc., associated with the computer, so I want to make sure that I can update Linux Mint, etc., after changing the ID and PW.

Though the ID and PW were shared with me, of course, and so I can get in and use the computer, I feel as though someone else has ultimate control over my PC and would very much like to change them to something known only to me.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

If it were me, I would just re-install Mint from scratch. It is free after all.

Otherwise, it would probably just be easiest to set up a new user with the name/password you want, make sure they're an "admin" (Ubuntu/Mint-speak for "has sudo privileges"), and then delete the old user.

Changing the password is easy, but changing the username is significantly less so, which is why I recommend just making a new one.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux...m-the-live-cd/

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCdRecovery

Mint is Ubuntu based

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/339

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=112077

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=120157

That should be enough to get you started, If you need visual help.
Search for videos on youtube

Happy Trails, Rok

If you expect to use the vendor for service at some point, they will probably demand that user be there - and usable.
Most knowledgeable Linux users you probably think "fsck you". If you have any ports open on your router, that user is a massive security exposure. I wonder what the chances are all the machines they sell have the same user/password ?. Ugh.

A new computer booted for the first time on a new OS normally loads a setup wizard to create a new account. Some distros do this like PClinuxOS.

In your case, if in doubt? Reinstall. I would.

"If you have any ports open on your router, that user is a massive security exposure. I wonder what the chances are all the machines they sell have the same user/password ?"

This ^^^ was my concern, exactly.

"...booted for the first time on a new OS normally loads a setup wizard to create a new account." I was expecting this to happen when I first booted. No.

Thank you for all the links. These will be very helpful.

I would be concerned about that as well, which is why I'd probably just wipe the drive and reinstall the OS from scratch to wipe out anything the manufacturer "left behind"...on accident or not. It would be trivially easy for them to set up a back door that gives them full access to not only that machine, but LAN access to any other machine or share on your network, regardless of any settings in your firewall or your router's firewall.

Hey there. Apologies in advance for resurrecting a zombified thread, but I thought it needed some clarification. Also apologies to the OP regarding the failure to respond to your request for help. Not sure what happened, but you definitely weren't being ignored (spam filter maybe?).

In any case, all installed OS's are vanilla with the exception of regular system updates and the binary NVIDIA driver for performance/stability reasons, so there are no unusual open ports, and certainly no backdoors. Eight Virtues operates out of Georgia in the U.S., not Russia or China. A backdoor would be unethical, antithetical to our purpose, probably illegal, and would result in lawsuits, horrific press, and a complete loss of business.

The other posters' suggestions are good regarding changing the default user's password, creating a new user and deleting the default user, or reinstalling the OS, which in most cases is very straightforward. You can also safely leave the default user in place, as for it to become a security vulnerability you'd either need to run an exploit locally (in which case you're probably doomed regardless), or intentionally install software which exposes you to attacks such as SSH or telnet, then explicitly forward those ports on your router to your machine's IP address. Even without a default user, doing that without taking proper security measures would allow an attacker to dictionary attack / brute force entry into the exposed service.

Please let me know if you have additional questions or concerns; thanks.

Kevin