Linux Mint Debian root and user (mint) password

[sxfield]

Hello,
I just put 2011 09 Mint Debian on a bootable persistent flash drive. I can boot and run things, but if I try to do other things, it asks me for 'password for mint' and 'root password'. When I first boot, I believe I am put in the guest (mint) account, and I checked, there is no password set, as far as I can tell. I still get asked. So, what are the default passwords for root and mint in the Debian release? This is getting frustrating and I might have to go back to regular Linux mint. The only reason I am using Debian is because it seems to like my hardware better (Elitebook 8460p) than the traditional Mint Linux offerings.
Thank you, Dennis.

[slider]

Hi

Normally there is no password preset for either on live media.

You say that this is set up as persistent?

You should be able to use the password command in terminal to set a password for your user for as I know.

Code: Select all

passwd user-name-here

follow prompts.

I know on a live disc this works very easily. Try it to see.

Let us know.

S

[sxfield]

I have installed LM Debian on a bootable persistent flash drive. Seems to work ok until I try to do something, like change the root password or sudo gedit a file. When I try that, I get a:

[sudo] password for mint:

and then I fail three times (tried mint, [enter], root, etc.)
and it says "Sorry, try again."
then, at last it says:

sudo: 3 incorrect password attempts
and back to the prompt. I'm sure it works just fine in 'live' mode, in fact this bootable USB drive has a 'live' startup option (as opposed to persistent startup).

Thanks,
D

[slider]

A regular user should be able to change their own password as follows: (it should not have a preset unless you already set one)

Open a terminal and type

Code: Select all

passwd mint

since it is looking for user mint.

Then follow the prompts displayed in the terminal.

Do not use the prefix sudo for this.


Another thing that we could try would be to add another user, but that may complicate things at this point.

Try the procedure as above first. Copy and paste all output verbatim in your next post please.

Edit:
Possible Hacks:

We may be able to use the "Live Portion" of the device to check and see if we can access the system files of the persistent drive? Let me know OK...

We may also be able to access the USB install from a Live disc optical drive. Can you boot from one ?

Let us know.

S

[sxfield]

Hello again,
I booted my USB flash drive 'Live' this time, then I tried opening terminal and typing 'sudu su'.

mint@mint ~ $ sudo su
[sudo] password for mint:

So, nothing different running Live. I'll try the other things you suggested and report.
d

[sxfield]

Oh no. I'm in trouble!

I opened terminal and typed: passwd mint
it says:
Enter new UNIX password: (thought this was Linux)
So I entered a password (mint).
It says You must choose a longer password
So I entered a longer password.
I was propted to retype the password, so I did.
I got this:
passwd: password updated successfully
then I typed: sudo passwd root, and it said
[sudo] password for mint: (so I typed the new mint password).
I got this:
mint is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
So, now I'm on report.
d

[slider]

mint is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
So, now I'm on report

Yes I just now received the report! Just kidding!



OK so you need root to add yourself to sudoers file or even to the admin group. Either should work, but you can't become root?
I was afraid that this might happen, but hoped that you would be on the sudoers list. Seems to me that you should by default. This is how things usually are.

**Have you tried pressing the "Esc" key while booting to see if you can get to some type of recovery mode?


Time to hack:

Try to boot a live disc and see if you can access the USB. You should be able to as long as you have an optical drive (which you never did answer me about)? Or boot the live disc from a different computer that has an optical drive and attach the USB device after booting.

If you can do the above let me know and I'll post the rest of the hack.

Otherwise you may need to re-install to the USB device next time making sure you have root access.

Please let me know.

S