UBUNTU: help with password reset
Hi, my kids have been using my old ubuntu laptop for games, and the "N" key stopped working, God knows why - kids. So when I tried to change the password to something without an "N" the computer got stuck at that screen. And when I tried again to change the password, it wouldn't let me. And so I tried the "new" password and that wouldn't work either. Is there a way I can use the terminal to change the password without knowing the password? Or a way to find out at least what the password is? Now my kids are bummed cause they can't download games. Help?
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In a terminal, to set an new password:
Code:
sudo passwd <kids username> Code:
man passwd |
i put in sudo passwd, but it just asked me for the password, which i don't know . . . did i do something wrong? what do i do next?
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Le'ts assume the kids login name be just "kids".
Type Code:
sudo passwd kids Of course, when writing the commands replace "kids" by the actual login name(s). |
Quote:
If you can't reset password (for some reasons) and you still have an old password unchanged (with "N" letter) you could attach any external USB keyboard and reset password. |
oh, ok. I put in those sideways carrots around the username. I'll try it without them and get back to you, thanks for your patience.
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ok. plugged in usb board, did sudo passwd username (my username), typed new password - just keeps saying "Sorry, try again". tried old, new, no go. What now?
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Quote:
So, either your new password doesn't match following confirmation, or you tried to change password as regular user (most likely). Could you copy from terminal and paste here what do you exactly typed and command output? it should be like this: Code:
user@localhost ~ $ sudo passwd user |
Hi,
Quote:
Evo2. |
Yes, if he has no NOPASSWD option in sudoers file sudo will ask for user password. As far as I remember, NOPASSWD should be set there.
However if NOPASSWD is not set, password can't be changed with sudo. This case it might be changed by root directly. To get real root priveleges (not via sudo) you have to boot into single mode, remount "/" as read-write (by default it will be mounted as read-only) and run: Code:
# passwd username |
Hi, sorry for the delay in responding. I homeschool 5 kids, one's 6 months, and I got caught up in baths and dinner and then passed out.
I can't copy and paste since this is a different computer, but here's exactly what happened: john@john-Inspiron-1520:~$ sudo passwd john [sudo] password for john: Sorry, try again. more info, the system is 12.04 I did a search online and came up with these: http://askubuntu.com/questions/37163...admin-password http://askubuntu.com/questions/55056...login-was-enab If I do this do I have the potential of really messing up my comp since I obviously have no idea what I'm doing? Should I just try it anyway? |
Hi,
the methods you linked to should in principle work. Please try and post back if you have problems. See also https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecoveryMode Cheers, Evo2. |
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