I had bought an off lease Dell with ubuntu pre-installed....whenever I try and update any updates to anything, it asks for a password, which I had never created. Nothing works...help, please? Thanks
2 Answers
If you got a used computer then you need to format and reinstall. There's no telling what the previous owner put on it.
This answer on another question should help you to reset the password.
or simply try to change old password via Grub , it works but i have gathered information from others , So please see the link first first..
If you have a single-boot (Ubuntu is the only operating system on your computer), to get the boot menu to show, you have to hold down the Shift key during bootup.
If you have a dual-boot (Ubuntu is installed next to Windows, another Linux operating system, or Mac OS X; and you choose at boot time which operating system to boot into), the boot menu should appear without the need to hold down the shift key.
From the boot menu, select recovery mode, which is usually the second boot option.
After you select recovery mode and wait for all the boot-up processes to finish, you'll be presented with a few options. In this case, you want the Drop to root shell prompt option so press the ᛎ Down arrow to get to that option, and then press Enter to select it.
Once you're at the root shell prompt, if you have forgotten your username as well, type
ls /home
(small letters & not capitals). This will list all the user accounts in your set up.To reset the password, type
passwd username
where username is the username you want to reset eg.passwd mysterio
in my case.You'll then be prompted for a new password. 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.
Now the password should be reset. Type
exit
to return to the recovery menu.After you get back to the recovery menu, select resume normal boot, and use Ubuntu as you normally would — only this time, you actually know the password!
Hope this helps.
-
Thanks to you...I have tried to change it in grub.....but it gives me an error.....manipulation error and does not change the password. I don't have any dvd's to download it onto a disk, so can't redownload...any other help would be greatly aoppreciated– Lori BNov 28, 2013 at 1:46
-
well @LoriB its better to do a reinstall because here you are to trying to make security changes, It won't be very simple. Evan i have never faced that situation just grabbed the complete answer from others and it worked for them. Why dont you try to make a fresh install after making backup , it will be easy..– Sukupa91Nov 28, 2013 at 2:34
mount -rw -o remount /