how to recover admin password

Asked by Louis

Hi,

I installed 12.04 recently and today I tried to install the software updates with my password but it keeps rejecting it. I am very very new to LINUX and when I tried to follow the help instructions, I could not get to the recovery menu? Please help.

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Solved
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Ubuntu shadow Edit question
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Solved by:
Warren Hill
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#1

run:
whoami

You can now see your username. Reboot and hold SHIFT, select recovery mode then select root. You can now run:
passwd foo; reboot

Replace foo with your username. Eg:
passwd andy; reboot

You can now log in with your new password and run admin tasks.

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Louis (louisfong1) said :
#2

Hi Andy,

I am still lost. When I rebooted and hold SHIFT, I can't get to the recovery mode, what am I doing wrong?

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Best Warren Hill (warren-hill) said :
#3
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Louis (louisfong1) said :
#4

HI all, I used a combo of all of above and did this:

1) use control/alt/t to get to terminal, then
I did what Andrew proposed per below and changed the PW, it works now, thanks!

run:
whoami

You can now see your username. Reboot and hold SHIFT, select recovery mode then select root. You can now run:
passwd foo; reboot

Replace foo with your username. Eg:
passwd andy; reboot