Ubuntu

Need help with root password problems

Asked by Rebecca Weddle

My father just gave me his dell laptop. It has Ubuntu 9.10 installed. I was trying to create my own user profile and make myself the Administrator. It wouldn't let me because he was already set to administrative. So I logged into his and made him a desktop user. Well now neither of us are administrators and I cant' do certain things because it now wants root password for certain things. How can I make my dad or me an administrator again. I had no clue this would happen and it didnt give me a warning.

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Marc Stewart
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George Standish (george-standish-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#1

First, you have to reboot into recovery mode.

   To get the boot menu hold down the Shift key during bootup

   From the boot menu, select recovery mode

   Select Drop to root shell prompt

Once you are at a prompt you need to add your username(s) to the "admin" group by running the following, substituding <username> with the actual username.

  sudo adduser <username> admin

Best of luck,
George

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Best Marc Stewart (marc.stewart) said : 		#2

When you turn on the computer, hold down SHIFT until the GRUB menu appears.

Use the up and down arrows to select the first entry that has (recovery mode) at the end, e.g.:
Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-19-generic (recovery mode)
and press ENTER.

You'll soon get a blue screen with a grey Recovery Menu on it. From it, pick:
root Drop to a root shell prompt

At the bottom of the screen, a command prompt will appear.

If you've already created a user account for yourself, skip to the next paragraph; if not, enter:
adduser rebecca (or whatever you want your username to be)
Enter the password you'd like at the two prompts.
Enter your full name when prompted; the subsequent details are optional.
If you've entered everything correctly enter y when asked if everything is correct.

To make yourself an administrator, at the command prompt, type:
usermod -a -G adm,dialout,cdrom,plugdev,lpadmin,admin,sambashare rebecca
Obviously, this assumes a username of "rebecca"; change if necessary.

You can check you've been added to all the groups, by typing:
groups rebecca

When happy that you're now an admin, type:
shutdown -r now
to restart.
You should now be able to make all the changes you want.

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Rebecca Weddle (rweagles4) said : 		#3

Thanks Marc Stewart, that solved my question.

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Rebecca Weddle (rweagles4) said : 		#4

Thanks guys for the help. I'm not locked out anymore. :)