Ubuntu Password Problem

[Chris Mohler]

On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 6:59 PM,  <mrcy at military.com> wrote:
> I tried to put 8.4 Ubuntu on a blank drive- 250 G'. I got through all the
> set up including the drive partiton
> that I had not done before. When it came to getting into the system, I came
> to a screaming halt.
>
> The password box would not accept my password, or any word I tried to use. I
> went to some existing help sites, both sponsered by you and some not, but
> none of them had any specific information. I tried a few ideas possed by
> some sites but to no avail.

Hi,

This is my preferred method for fixing a lost password problem:

1. Reboot

2. Watch for the GRUB menu - it comes up right after your BIOS screen
and is usually black with white text.  It may say something like
"Press ESC to enter menu", or it may be a list of operating systems on
the machine.  Press "ESC" if you see the "Press ESC" message.  Then
use the up/down arrow keys to select the first item that has "Recovery
Mode" in the name and press enter.

3. You will now see a ton of text whizzing past - this is normal.
After a moment or two, a blue screen with a gray box will pop up.
Press the down arrow key to highlight "root" and press enter.

4.  There will now be a prompt at the bottom of the screen.  Type
"passwd username" (without quotes, replace username with your
username) and press enter.  So if your username is mrcy, type "passwd
mrcy" and press enter.  You will then be prompted to enter the new
password twice.  You will not see any characters being entered as you
type - this is normal: just type the password, press enter and repeat.
If you mistype and the passwords do not match, press the up arrow (to
reselect the last command), press enter, and try again.  Once you've
entered the new password successfully, press CTRL+D (Hold CTRL, press
D).

5. You will be returned to the blue screen with gray box.  Press the
up/down arrow key to select "exit" and press enter.  You will see some
more text going by, and then you should see the login screen.

6. Enter your new username, press enter, then your new password, press enter.

Chris