Linux Mint no longer recognizes the password

[martin123]

Hi All,

I wanted to access my PC as usual, but when I enter the password, the system does not take it into account. I can't access the desktop!

It goes back and re-displays the same access page to enter the password again!

The password I enter is correct, I did not forget it. Because, when I enter a wrong password, the error message appears "Invalid Password, Please Try again".

It's like the system is stuck. Although it recognizes the password, but it does not enter.

I am absolutely blocked, and I cannot access the desktop.

How can I get access again?

Or else, how to remove the password completely?

Thank You,

[smurphos]

See viewtopic.php?p=1769597#p1769597 for some initial troubleshooting steps. This is more than likely a full file system issue. Report back with the results and then folks can help from there.

[Larry78723]

Please open a terminal full screen and run the following command:

Code: Select all

lsblk -fi

Post the results in your reply.

[Moem]

Please open a terminal full screen

If you are going to tell them this while they can't log in, it might be good to also tell them that they should boot up from a live medium before running the command.

[Larry78723]

It was late and I was tired. Missed explaining that important point.

[LittleScriptMan]

My first guess would be the same as the previous posters and as they explained everything well, I have nothing to add to that possibility.

However should it be a real password problem, the two files managing the passwords on a Linux system are :
- /etc/passwd which manages the translation of user accounts and system accounts to the universal identifiers (UID) that are the core of the system security (Linux does not know users by their names / aliases, but by an UID)
- /etc/shadow which contains an encrypted version of the passwords.
If those files are corrupted, even the root user may not be able to connect and the only possibility would be to restore them from a safe backup or a Timeshift snapshot.
Obviously you will also need to boot from a live medium in this case.

PS : I'm always surprised how few people think to back these two files up, especially when not using Timeshift or similar.

[martin123]

Hi @smurphos

It was not <ctrl><alt><F1> as mentioned in the topic link.

It was <F2> instead, I entered the login "username" and password, I get a message saying "Login is incorrect"! The admin password is a correct one.

(notice that the password doesn't show while typing it)

Is there any other password set up, like a root password ?

Please, how to access to desktop?

--------

I also removed the hard drive and had it explored in a Live DVD. None of my files are showing! The "Home/user" file seems to be completely empty!

Is it because, the "Home" directory was encrypted? I don't remember set up encryption while installing.

[Larry78723]

Please boot from your installation media (USB/DVD) and open a terminal full screen, then run the following command:

Code: Select all

lsblk -fi

Post the results in your reply.

[martin123]

Here is the output of "lsblk -fi" from Live dvd:

Code: Select all

To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

mint@mint:~$ lsblk -fi
NAME   FSTYPE   LABEL                         UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
loop0  squashfs                                                                          0   100% /rofs
sda                                                                                               
|-sda1 vfat                                   61A6-EEE1                                           
`-sda2 ext4                                   d2127663-4b72-453c-8ee2-4ca023e3f2b0                
sr0    iso9660  Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon 64-bit 2020-06-24-19-01-47-00                     0   100% /cdrom
mint@mint:~$ 

That's the only result I can get. Because I can't access my PC to access his terminal.

[martin123]

As I explained earlier, I removed the hard drive and had it explored in a Linux Live DVD. None of my files are found!

The "Home/user" file is completely empty!

What is the cause of this, is it the encryption of the home files?

If it is encryption, how can I remove it?

Your help is highly appreciated. I want to recover my work files that are on the disk.