Ubuntu

Cannot log in to existing USER account. Password not accepted

Asked by Lawrence

This relates to Ubuntu 13.10

I have used Ubuntu on the advice of a friend for well over one year. I love this OS but when it goes wrong, boy does it go wrong. Today, I logged in to do business as usual to an existing user account that is at least one year old. My password was not recognised. I assumed CAPS lock must be on so tried again = same problem!

I have been trying everything possible with a friend who understands more about this than I do to bypass this challenge. We could gain access to the root user inside the terminal using ctrl/alt/f1. However all attempts to override with a new password to updating packages via sudo commands has failed. We even tried using Gnome instead of Unity to work around this.

My entire business is now trapped inside a worthless i7 laptop. I seriously need to get this sorted but do not possess the necessary skill set to work this out. That is the challenge of Linux for someone like myself.

Does anyone have any idea or work around? Can we somehow still gain access to the files on the /home directory and possibly export them for use with another new user??

Thanks in advance

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actionparsnip
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Best actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword

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Lawrence (lawrencejpointer) said : 		#2

Thanks actionparsnip, that solved my question.

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Lawrence (lawrencejpointer) said : 		#3

Thank you Andrew. What's odd is that I feel I did all this yesterday. However instead of using the recovery mode options to then reboot the system, I was using ctrl/alt/f1 which for whatever reason beyond my understanding did not help to fully reset the system. I am booting in using Gnome now rather than Unity. The username that WAS ALWAYS USED before is in capital letters. During the process explained above the username found on the system is in lower case. So when I log in the original user still doesn't work. All I now do is hit 'not listed' add the lower case string in and then sign in! Bingo! Thanks a million for this. I was up that creek without a paddle yesterday. Much appreciated.