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I've been to system settings and to User Accounts. My account is the only one on the system and I have previously been able to UnLock the screen so that I could set my account to login without password prompt.

That didn't make any effect on the system. I still have to enter a password to log in, but now I can't unlock the User Accounts dialog to make any changes at all. What do I need to reset?

note how the unlock box in the upper right hand corner isn't available for selection...

enter image description here

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  • 2
    addendum: I am slowly losing control over my computer. I can no longer shutdown or reboot via any menu (only by holding the power button). Now my "mute" light is on, even though I have audio; pressing the mute button has no effect. I also have lost the ability to mount my external hard drive and pen drive, the error is "Not able to mount Extension Drive. Not Authorized". I feel betrayed by my unixy computer. Hal? is that you?
    – John Kotrla
    Oct 19, 2011 at 3:09
  • I think the problem is something to do with PolicyKit. That is a piece of software which controls the fine grained policies
    – Manish Sinha
    Oct 23, 2011 at 23:37

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
8

Try sudo usermod -U username to unlock your account.

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2

I just discovered your questions after it affected me too. Please take a look at following bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lightdm/+bug/851055 It seems somethin is broken in lightdm (new default display manager in Ubuntu 11.10). The problem had first occured during the beta release of Ubuntu Oneiric and seemed fixed, but users are still reporting problems. At the moment there isn't much you can do. Subscribe to the bug report and show that it affects you. Wait for a new fix or downgrade to an older lightdm version.

edit: Of course you can do something. Remove lightdm as display manager and install "good old" gdm display manager. Open a terminal and enter: sudo apt-get remove lightdm to remove lightdm, next enter sudo apt-get install gdm to install gdm. Reboot

Hope lightdm gets fixed soon!

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    You forgo the sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm or else he would be left in an even more broken system
    – Manish Sinha
    Oct 24, 2011 at 10:43
  • And does changing to gdm.... affects anything
    – Starx
    Feb 13, 2012 at 12:34
2

Changing the default window manager to lightdm (as proposed here) solved that issue for me.

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  • Had this problem of a disabled "unlock" button on 19.10. For me it was solved by 1. sudo apt-get update 2. sudo apt-get upgrade 3. sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm 4. Log out then back in. Then the "unlock" was enabled
    – gabore
    Jan 14, 2020 at 20:12
0

I had the same problem.

Setting the password to 'none' in Gnome 3 System Settings GUI meant I didn't need password to login but then couldn't unlock changes to user accounts anymore.

I solved it by changing the root password in the command line:

sudo passwd

The old password still worked, then I entered a new password, and now it works and can unlock user changes in the GUI again.

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Follow these steps:

  1. Boot into recovery mode
  2. Hold down the shift key or press Esc key when computer starting.
  3. In the grub menu, select the Advanced Options for Ubuntu
  4. On next menu select recovery mode
  5. Then select Root – Drop to root shell prompt
  6. Now an option to enter commands appears at the bottom:
   mount -rw -o remount /
   ls /home
   passwd *username*
   Enter new UNIX password:
   Retype new UNIX password:
   exit
  1. On next window select resume - Resume normal boot

Enjoy Ubuntu with new password. More details in How to Reset Ubuntu Password in 2 Minutes.

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-4

What you need to do is learn command line access for modifying users. You NEED the root password, or to make a setuid program made in C.

http://www.ahinc.com/linux101/users.htm

This has a pretty good rundown of how to do things with users in bash.

Really you should make an effort to learn bash, it will save you insurmountable amounts of trouble on and down the line. If you really want the power of Unix systems it comes from the shell and scripting.

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1
  • -1, this doesn't answer the question.
    – jrg
    Oct 23, 2011 at 22:32

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