I can't access my laptop (Dell 10) after Ubuntu 16.04 installation as I forgot my login. I know my password as use it everytime I open my laptop but login I used perhaps only to set up my computer 5 years ago. My question is how to retrieve login or how to bypass it?
Thanks

You can use your Ubuntu installation disk as a rescue disc. Boot from it, mount your hard drive on /mnt and type You will see your login name in the passwd file.

Have you really not logged in for five years? How the heck did you manage that?

cat suits the job better than ls.

Yeah, I noticed that a couple of minutes later. I've corrected the error.

i do not have installation disc, as i bought my laptop with ubuntu installed. it was my first time to use linux so i was confused.

i do login every time i open my laptop, but it ask me only password. not login
what i can not remember is my login name. password i used when upgrading settings, and similar. never been asked for my user name

Follow these instructions, do first 7 points, do not proceed with 8. When at prompt type
You should see all home directories for users, named after their login name. If you never added any users there will be just one.

Ah yes! I'd forgotten that Mint does that. It's a good example of how something that is supposed to make life easier for the user ends up just causing more aggro. It also illustrates an important point: you must always have an alternative way of booting your system. In most cases, the installation disc serves that purpose, but you don't have one so you need to create a rescue disk.

Take a cd to a friend's house. He doesn't have to be a Linux user; Windows is quite OK for this job. Go to the SystemRescue website. Download and burn the SystemRescue image. Keep it for emergencies. It's a special distro full of tools for fixing problems and I swear by it.

PS: I've just seen Emerson's post. Follow his advice but make a rescue disc all the same. It's something everyone should have.

now i found my login, but look like did configure display wrongly, so it still show only terminal where i got welcome screen

i don't know how to start ubuntu? what command to write? or should i still go to wiki instructions?

If you are still at command prompt just execute reboot command and your PC should boot normally.

i followed it all, it has two names as my nephew used it few times. after that i reboot ir, and now ubuntu started but it got back to terminal, asking again for my login that i know now... as many tie as i tried to get out of it, it always repeat same.
i need a command to get out of terminal and start system normally, please.

Everything you did following the wiki was temporary, next boot should have been back to normal. You say when you power off your PC and turn it back on it goes to console login without GUI?

Try typing startx after logging in.

after command startx system started. now i have next problem that is too big picture for screen i have (dell inspirion mini) so i can't access commands, wifi button, etc. my wifi is off after instaling new version of ubuntu and i can not instal component that was not installed correctly in a first place.
i need to shrink picture to fit into display. any idea how? or to start wifi

also, every time i restart computer, as soon as ubuntu starts it goes into console login; needs startx to start

i found the way to access settings, but when i get into network, getting this message: Oops, something went wrong. Please contact software vendor
network manager needs to be running

when i tried display: could not get screen information

All this is happening after you installed Ubuntu 16.04 over previous Ubuntu installation?