Desk top does not recognize pass work after upgrading to 17.10

billwh2016 · 01-17-2018, 08:35 AM

After upgrading to 17.10,from 16.04 my computer would not except my password. In order to use my computer I had to reload live cd for 15.10 to be able to use my computer again. My question is how can I upgrade to 17.10 and be able to log in without being told my pass word is not listed.

hazel · 01-17-2018, 09:25 AM

For a start, you haven't told us what distribution you are using. The site seems to think it's Ubuntu. Is that correct?

You also haven't said how you actually did the upgrade. Did you reinstall from a 17.10 image on a CD or did you upgrade via your package manager?

At a guess I would say that your /etc/passwd file somehow got overwritten. Boot from a live CD and check the file. Has it got your login name in it? If not, you'll need to edit it in. We can show you how to do that; it isn't complicated.

billwh2016 · 01-17-2018, 03:33 PM

Hazel I am using ubuntu 16.04. I got an upgrade notification informing me that my 16.04 will no-longer be supported and I should upgrade to 17.10. All went well until I tried to login, the computer would tell me my password is not listed. After several attempts with no success I decided to input an old password I haven't used in years. The response came back in red input error.
So it seem the system recognize my password, but for some reason it will not except it.
Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Bill

Dave Lerner · 01-17-2018, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billwh2016

... I got an upgrade notification informing me that my 16.04 will no-longer be supported and I should upgrade to 17.10. ...

Ubuntu 16.04 is an LTS (long-term support) release, and will be supported for five years, until April 2021.
Ubuntu 17.10 is a standard release, and will only be supported for nine months, until July 2018.
https://www.ubuntu.com/info/release-end-of-life
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

hazel · 01-18-2018, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billwh2016

Hazel I am using ubuntu 16.04. I got an upgrade notification informing me that my 16.04 will no-longer be supported and I should upgrade to 17.10.

Yes, but how did you actually do the update? And have you looked at /etc/passwd to see if your username is still in there?

When people answer a request for help by asking for specific information about the problem, it's your job to give them that information. Otherwise we'll all just be going round in circles.

Brains · 01-18-2018, 01:57 PM

I just re-installed Debian testing from DVD1. I allowed a root account and input the desired password. After installation upon first boot I was unable to do much because root password was not accepted and sudo was not installed, so I could not do much. I put the DVD back in and booted it into rescue mode, after a while selected the partition of the new installation and I was presented with options, one of which is to open a shell within the root partition selected.

This puts me in a chroot, I then typed:

Code:

chpasswd root

Then entered the same password, again to confirm, then exited, reboot the OS and the password now worked.

If your buntu disk has rescue mode, it may offer to put you in a chroot like Debian does, if not, you will need to chroot manually to re-input the desired password. Basic steps for chroot in the code box below.

Code:

mount /dev/xxxx /mnt
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev 
mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt
"do what you want to do"
exit
umount /mnt/sys
umount /mnt/proc
umount /mnt/dev/pts
umount /mnt/dev
umount /mnt

There is a reason for rescue or recovery options of installation media, this is one that is simple to fix using install or live media, it don't necessarily have to be same version as the OS installed.
EDIT: You will need to put your user name as such: sudo chpasswd user