Locked out of machine - please help

[Richard Kimber]

On Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:04:39 +0300
Pop Horea-Vasile <pop.horea at lnxopensource.com> wrote:

> *Solution #1*
> 
> 1. Boot up with a Ubuntu live CD (normal Desktop install CD) and
> enter a live graphical session.
> 2. Mount the partitions containing both the / and /usr directories of 
> your Ubuntu installation. 99.99% of the time they are on the same 
> partition (say it's /dev/sda1 in this example):
> 
> $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
> 
> The above can also be accomplished in GNOME by clicking on the
> partition (drive icon) under Places in the top menu (Panel).
> 
> 3. Change the root password:
> 
> $ sudo chroot /mnt passwd root

Thanks, but I tried this via the maintenance session on the DVD, but on
rebooting it wouldn't accept the password

Would it be any different using a live graphical session?  My feeling
is that there is something wrong with the mechanism that checks the
password and allows access.

- Richard