Donated Computer Password problems.

Try the following:

1) Boot into recovery mode. This will get you to a text-only root environment. I am assuming this is what you booted into before.

2) Run the following command:

ls /home/

This will list the directories in the home directory. While this isn't strictly a users list, these directories are traditionally have the same name as the users who own them.

If you see folders with usernames, try the command:

passwd username

where username is the same as one of the folder names listed above.

If you don't see anything there, then it is possible that whoever donated it deleted all their users before giving you the computer. Then, it might make sense to just make a new user, you can do this by running the command:

adduser username

where username is the name of the new user you want to create. The utility will then ask you to give the user a password and ask you other questions. Once you do that, you should have a user that you can log in with.

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

Hi, guys;
Thanks for your suggestions but neither Stevens suggestion nor Toms helped. With Stevens suggestion I ran all the commands as instructed and was able to change my root passwd it verified a successful change I rebooted and tried to unlock my account in users groups but I was prompted for my passwd which it failed to authenticate. I restarted and added a new user but once I got to a certain point I made a mistake and when I hit backspace all I got was a series of bracketed Ds. ie [D]. I rebooted and went to usersgroups and I couldn't even hi-light the user name. With Toms suggestion I went through all the motions but to no avail. I had tried that url the day before but it didn't work. Questio? Whenever I boot up I get an error window that says something to the effect;" $HOME/.dmrc is being ignored. This prevents thedefault session and language from being saved...etc blah blah. Could this be the problem and if so how do I fix it.
Thanks a bunch, and Please help! Joe

> To: <email address hidden>
> From: <email address hidden>
> Subject: Re: [Question #75741]: Donated Computer Password problems.
> Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:30:30 +0000
>
> Your question #75741 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741
>
> Tom proposed the following answer:
> http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741/+confirm?answer_id=1
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.

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Ok both ideas usually work. I thought Steven's idea seemed a lot more focussed and thus more likely to help fix it. A quick couple of questions

Do you have an Ubuntu cd?

During bootup do you get a menu offering lots of different options for booting into Ubuntu?

Sometimes this boot menu needs to be accessed by pressing the "Esc" key at an appropriate moment, after the bios table disappear there should be a line at top and bottom of the screen with the rest blank - one of these lines say something about "grub 1.5" - this is usually about the time to press "Esc" and you might even see a line saying so. Note if you already got into the boot-menu with lots of options for Ubuntu then don't worry about all that bit ;)

The 2nd option for Ubuntu should have something like "recovery mode" near the end of the line. This should take you to a welcoming blue screen (not a BSOD although it looks like a match on colour tone). In this menu try options like "Clear some space", "Fix broken packages" and "fsck scan partition for errors".

Running these things tends to fix all kinds of random errors and it's good to do on a monthly basis anyway. I have a feeling that one problem is that your hard-drive (or at least certain crucial partitions of it) might be a bit over-full. Clearing some space first might let you fix some things and then maybe sort the password issue out later.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi Tom,
Thanks for your reply. No I don't have an ubuntu cd, I just ordered one from the site, I didn't try to download it cause my cd-rom won't accept autorun files or won't even load. I know it reads files, but I just keep getting error messages that the archive won't load. Thats just one of the many bugs I've run accross to be fixed if and when I can fix my password issue, Question, do you yhink if I run the yppasswd command it might help? I know about that cause I went out and bought a fairly expensive book on Ubuntu at Barnes and Nobel, but I still have a long way to go to understand Linux and Ubuntu. You help is greatly appreciateted. Thanks Joe Btw I've tried all fo your suggestions after I booted in to the recovery mode. There are 4 kernel lines: versions 2.6.27.14 and one 2.6.27.7 each has it's own rcovery lines after the generic line.

> To: <email address hidden>
> From: <email address hidden>
> Subject: RE: [Question #75741]: Donated Computer Password problems.
> Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:53:11 +0000
>
> Your question #75741 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Tom proposed the following answer:
> Ok both ideas usually work. I thought Steven's idea seemed a lot more
> focussed and thus more likely to help fix it. A quick couple of
> questions
>
> Do you have an Ubuntu cd?
>
> During bootup do you get a menu offering lots of different options for
> booting into Ubuntu?
>
> Sometimes this boot menu needs to be accessed by pressing the "Esc" key
> at an appropriate moment, after the bios table disappear there should be
> a line at top and bottom of the screen with the rest blank - one of
> these lines say something about "grub 1.5" - this is usually about the
> time to press "Esc" and you might even see a line saying so. Note if
> you already got into the boot-menu with lots of options for Ubuntu then
> don't worry about all that bit ;)
>
> The 2nd option for Ubuntu should have something like "recovery mode"
> near the end of the line. This should take you to a welcoming blue
> screen (not a BSOD although it looks like a match on colour tone). In
> this menu try options like "Clear some space", "Fix broken packages" and
> "fsck scan partition for errors".
>
> Running these things tends to fix all kinds of random errors and it's
> good to do on a monthly basis anyway. I have a feeling that one problem
> is that your hard-drive (or at least certain crucial partitions of it)
> might be a bit over-full. Clearing some space first might let you fix
> some things and then maybe sort the password issue out later.
>
> Good luck and regards from
> Tom :)
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741/+confirm?answer_id=3
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.

_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage limits.
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage_062009

"With Stevens suggestion I ran all the commands as instructed and was able to change my root passwd it verified a successful change I rebooted and tried to unlock my account in users groups but I was prompted for my passwd which it failed to authenticate."

OK. A few questions. So if I understand you, you have changed the root password, you also have a user account that you log into, but you are not able to use this account to administer the system?

Try the following:

1) Login to your user account.
2) Open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal).
3) Type this command and note the ouput:

whoami

4)Type the command:

su root

5) Type this command:

grep -ri ^admin /etc/group

You should see something like:

admin:x:121:user1,user2

6) In the line everything after the last colon is a comma-separated list of users in the admin group. If your user(the output of the "whoami" command am I) is NOT in this list do this:

a) nano /etc/group
b) find the line that starts with "admin"
c) add your username (the output of the first "whoami" command you entered) to the end of that comma separated list. If there was nothing after the last ':' then you don't have to worry about commas, just put your username onto the end of the line right after the ':"
d) Save (Ctrl+O) and Exit(Ctrl+X) the file in nano.

7) Restart. This probably isn't necessary, but do it anyway.

Now your user should be in the admin group and thus should be able to administer the system. ALSO, if step 4 doesn't work, just boot into recovery mode again and do the rest of the steps 5 and 6 from there. Just be sure to keep track of your username.

Ok, on another tack i wonder if you have this machine linked up to a Lan network or if you have an 8Gb (or more) usb stick that you could use instead of a Cd. There are alternatives to booting up or even going as far as a full install from a Cd
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation#Installation%20without%20a%20CD
This would help if your cd-drive is old or intermittent for some other reason.

I hope this helps!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

If you do go for a full re-install then i have a few tricks, the obvious one being to install as a dual-boot alongside the existing Ubuntu and thus make sure the new install operates well before removing the old one. This could easily be more of a multi-boot if there's a Windows or anything involved too, this guide specifies a dual-boot and only considers that as being with Windows but i'm sure you can work out the differences you'd need
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi Tom,
I appreciate all your help Thank you. I managed to get around the problem by creating another user with admin priveleges from there I managed to enter my original user account and reset my password.
Now I'm working on getting my CDROMS to work. They are not in the fstab or mtag files and when I try to enter those files I get an ACCESS DENIED ERROR. What do you sugest. None of the answers at Lunchpad seem to work for me. I'm almost sorry I got involved wit Linux....Thanks

> To: <email address hidden>
> From: <email address hidden>
> Subject: RE: [Question #75741]: Donated Computer Password problems.
> Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 12:19:28 +0000
>
> Your question #75741 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741
>
> Tom proposed the following answer:
> If you do go for a full re-install then i have a few tricks, the obvious one being to install as a dual-boot alongside the existing Ubuntu and thus make sure the new install operates well before removing the old one. This could easily be more of a multi-boot if there's a Windows or anything involved too, this guide specifies a dual-boot and only considers that as being with Windows but i'm sure you can work out the differences you'd need
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
>
> Good luck and regards from
> Tom :)
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741/+confirm?answer_id=7
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.

_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage limits.
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage_062009

Err, there are lots of other forums and lots of other versions of linux. Often when i have a problem i find it helpful to post the same question in a few different forums and then try to paste the answer into each.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToGetHelp

Also more general linux forums at

http://www.linuxquestions.org
http://www.unixmen.net/

although i haven't tried this last one yet. Bear in mind that it's probably taken a fair while to build up knowledge about Windows and moving to linux is a bit of a culture shock with most of the problems being at the start. Also Windows is usually pre-installed and tweaked to perfection by experts whereas we have to muddle through without any prior experience (and furture experience doesn't help). Mostly it's easier to move gradually to linux by having a dual-boot system
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
so that you can continue to use Windows until you learn how to do a task at a time in linux. Most of us keep a working dual-boot option somewhere. Don't worry though because it really doesn't take very long to get used to linux and you'll probably find that even in a couple of weeks you'll find yourself working much faster and enjoying linux much more than you ever could with Windows but it takes a while and it's a struggle getting there.

Please post the cd-drive issue as a new problem because i haven't a clue, sorry chap
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi Tom,
Thanks for all your help!

> To: <email address hidden>
> From: <email address hidden>
> Subject: RE: [Question #75741]: Donated Computer Password problems.
> Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 16:10:14 +0000
>
> Your question #75741 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Tom proposed the following answer:
> Err, there are lots of other forums and lots of other versions of linux.
> Often when i have a problem i find it helpful to post the same question
> in a few different forums and then try to paste the answer into each.
>
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToGetHelp
>
> Also more general linux forums at
>
> http://www.linuxquestions.org
> http://www.unixmen.net/
>
> although i haven't tried this last one yet. Bear in mind that it's probably taken a fair while to build up knowledge about Windows and moving to linux is a bit of a culture shock with most of the problems being at the start. Also Windows is usually pre-installed and tweaked to perfection by experts whereas we have to muddle through without any prior experience (and furture experience doesn't help). Mostly it's easier to move gradually to linux by having a dual-boot system
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
> so that you can continue to use Windows until you learn how to do a task at a time in linux. Most of us keep a working dual-boot option somewhere. Don't worry though because it really doesn't take very long to get used to linux and you'll probably find that even in a couple of weeks you'll find yourself working much faster and enjoying linux much more than you ever could with Windows but it takes a while and it's a struggle getting there.
>
> Please post the cd-drive issue as a new problem because i haven't a clue, sorry chap
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion
> Good luck and regards from
> Tom :)
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741/+confirm?answer_id=9
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/75741
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync.
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Thank you Much Tom!!!

Lol, thanks Joe - you did solve that on your own and despite rather than because of help from me ;))) I think Steven gave more potentially useful info for this :)
Thanks and regards from
Tom :)