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So my sister gave me this old laptop that has Ubuntu 12.10. The problem is that she has a username administrator password, but she forgot it. I've tried using GRUB and launching recovery mode and using the root shell prompt. And I type the "passwd username" command, and it tells me to type the new UNIX password, but when I try to type a new password it's like my keyboard doesn't even work. It types nothing. What's the problem? Why does my keyboard not type anything when I try to reset the UNIX password? It always works perfectly fine. I'm grateful for any help, thank you.

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    When you type a password nothing is displayed to prevent anybody watching from seeing how many characters are in your password. Do not worry, it is working as expected. Oct 17, 2013 at 21:37

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This is the way many Linux/Unix commands behave when you enter a password. Nothing is printed out when you type in your password, but nevertheless, it is still being entered. You will be prompted to confirm it, so you don't have to worry about making a mistake.

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When you type the password you will get no visual response acknowledging your typing. Your password is still being accepted. Just type the password and hit Enter when you're done. You'll be prompted to retype the password. Do so and hit Enter again.

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