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Finding your username.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:48 am
by nimmy
Hello

i am totally new to Mint and i installed it. It asked for the password, I used a simple one that I can easy rememember, likewise the password.

This is the problem, after all the install was done, I went to log in and it wouldn't recognise the username. I tried the usual, caps on off and all the rest, nothing.

Is there anyway of finding out what the username is without logging in?

thanks.

Re: Finding your username.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:02 am
by jungle_boy
Reinstall it and save the name and password. Is faster.

Re: Finding your username.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:52 am
by nimmy
Thanks for the reply.

I know the username, it's the most simple one I use, infact, it's the same as my display name here.

I am curious now to know exactly what went wrong and see what the user ended up being (maybe i miss hit a key). I know it's not the password, again that was a simple to rememebmr one and I even double check using the method below:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 87#p621487

which work just fine, don't seem to be able to find somehting similar for username.

I installed it on an old laptop for the purposes of exploring it, so security was not uppermost in my mind, simple user, simple password.

Maybe a reinstall is the only way.

Cheers.

Re: Finding your username.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:07 am
by altair4
Boot into the install DVD - not to reinstall but just to get into a live session.
Mount the partition that your real install lives in
Go to /etc/passwd ( note the spelling of passwd )

In there are all the users on your installed system ( you may not have realized that some of these are users but ... ). The one you created during your install should be in there somewhere.

Re: Finding your username.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 10:40 am
by nimmy
Thanks for that, altair4, unfortunatley it won't let me boot from the dvd, even if I change the boot order in the bios. SO I can't do your method not reinstall. I'll probaly have to go into windows, delete the partition and recreate it.

thanks, any way.

Re: Finding your username.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 11:48 am
by nimmy
So i found the command, it's merely whoami, this gives the currenty user.

So I need to mount the partition how is this done?

I used the command $ mount /dev sada6, and it merely stated only root can do that.

Thanks.