switching users in Mint 19.2

khunphet · 01-27-2022, 10:27 AM

I'm using Mint 19.2 and when I log in at a terminal I see "peter@peter - ThinkPad-X41" at the command line. I presume that "peter" is a user who is using a ThinkPad X41. Attempting to run any commands, I keep getting asked for peter's password which I haven't the slightest notion just what peter's password is. I've tried entering a whole gamut of possible passwords, but none of them get accepted as correct. I presume there must have been a password when I first used Mint, but the darn password has been forgotten for sure. Is there some way to reset peter's password without knowing what the original password was? It is indeed a sign of my age that I can no longer recall what password I originally entered when I first used Mint. But there must be a way around this road block so that I can actually Mint to my advantage. Hoping the good folks can shed some light on the subject.

computersavvy · 01-27-2022, 11:53 AM

That prompt 'peter@peter - ThinkPad-X41' (and that you say you have already logged in), seems to indicate that user 'peter' is already logged in to machine 'peter' which is a ThinkPad-X41, so it puzzles me that you need a password to run commands. It is possible that the system is not properly mounting your home directory and as a result you are unable to do a lot of things.

What is the output of the command 'pwd', and please post the full detail (command and response) here so we can see exactly what the system is telling you. The previous description

Code:

Attempting to run any commands, I keep getting asked for peter's password

does not tell us what is actually happening

If you actually need to change a password you can always boot to a live distro via USB then follow a few simple steps to reset your password.

I am not sure with mint if these are the same (but they should be.) I use fedora mostly.

1. boot to the live usb
2. switch to super user (root) with the su command in a terminal
3. mount the root file system on the installed drive to /mnt (make sure to replace sda2 in the following with the proper device ID for your system.)

Code:

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

4. mount the needed system directories on the newly mounted file system

Code:

mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /sys  /mnt/sys
mount --bind /run  /mnt/run
mount --bind /dev  /mnt/dev

5. chroot to the installed file system

Code:

chroot /mnt

6. Change the password for your user (replace 'username' with your actual username on that system.)

Code:

passwd username

7. once the password has been successfully changed then simply reboot to the main system and log in.

khunphet · 01-27-2022, 09:31 PM

ATTN: for all viewers; This thread was, by my own hand, unintentionaly marked [SOLVED] -- in fact it is NOT yet solved and I do not know how to remove the [SOLVED] marking.

For computersavvy: Thanks for your input. The result of the command 'pwd' is only one single line:

peter@peter-ThinkPad-X41:~$ pwd
/home/peter
peter@peter-ThinkPad-X41:~$

As an example of Mint asking for peter's password, what I was/am trying to do is add gparted to my Mint installation:

peter@peter-ThinkPad-X41:~$ gparted

Command 'gparted' not found, but can be installed with:

sudo apt install gparted

peter@peter-ThinkPad-X41:~$ sudo apt install gparted
[sudo] password for peter:

and, of course this is whewe I am stuck at this time as I have no idea what peter's password is since it was quite some time ago that I did install the first user, i.e. peter, on the Mint installation and apparently had made no note of the password I had entered at that time.

At this point, I do an Ctrl-Alt-T which returns me to the terminal with the peter@peter-ThinkPad-X41:~$ prompt. I hope this provides the information you need to better understand the problem.

pan64 · 01-28-2022, 05:27 AM

you need to boot into single user mode (as root) and set the password of peter again.

JeremyBoden · 01-28-2022, 10:59 AM

Actually, isn't "peter-ThinkPad-X41" likely to be your hostname?

You can check this with

Code:

cat /etc/hostname

(no password required).

It's fairly easy to change (with root access).

khunphet · 01-28-2022, 06:46 PM

For JeremyBoden: Sure enough! 'peter@peter-ThinkPad-X41' IS my hostname as the command
'cat /etc/hostname' proved. You note that the hostname is fairly easy to change; 1) why would I want to do that and 2) exactly what does the hostname signify and what is its purpose?

For pan64: I did as suggested and lo and behold - I was able to enter a new password and Mint was quite happy with it as well. I then went on to add the package gparted to my USB Mint installation and that too went quite well. Many thanks for your help.

Once I hear back from Jeremy, I think that my situation/original problem can be marked as solved. Having the experts close at hand is very satisfying for a oldtimer like myself who is still learning the Linux ropes. Many thanks indeed.

JeremyBoden · 01-29-2022, 06:01 AM

The usual CLI prompt is username@hostname
If you have several networked devices (such as routers, printers, mobiles, PC's etc) the hostname is a useful way to distinguish between devices.
It can be convenient to associate the hostname with its IP address, so that you could issue commands like ssh some-meaningful-hostname

When you entered peter during installation, the installer generated "peter-ThinkPad-X41" - expecting you to change it to a sensible name.
I'm guessing that the hostname is either too long or looks strange if you have multiple users?

I like to use short hostnames for desktops or my VM's - such as deb11, hal, pi, nas etc.
There is no need to change your hostname, but you can do it.

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-change-hostname-on-linux gives several different ways.
It's not mentioned, but you should probably do a reboot afterwards.