Password no longer works [Sorto Solved]

[rfharabin]

I am sorry about the confusion. I spent about three hours on and off and was tired when I posted. I goofed posting that capitol M.
I am aware of the syntax and letters problem. When it did not work for me I played with different ways to enter a command. I also took time to find and remember how to use my camera. I had not used it in over two years. My keyboard repeats on the letters when doing this stuff before the OP Sys, as such it takes time. I am also learning how to use the board software.

I set up our laptop beside the desktop today to help me follow your suggestions. It has been decades since DOS but I see some similarities, this may help.

The first line of what appears after my BIOS screen when booting up is shown below. The top line that is whited out is similar to the second line but is not recovery mode.

P1000707s.jpg

As you can see the top line sends me to my 120GB external HD where Mint LMDE is located.

The next image shows that there is a home file but I cannot enter it for some reason.

P1000708s.jpg

What about trying the recovery mode. I what your opinion first so as to reduce chance of messing it up worse.
I have been playing with this reply for a long time. It will appear as posted in IE but not in Firefox or Iron.

Thank you very much for your perseverance.

[wayne128]

to list your home directory

type

Code: Select all

ls /home

there is a space between ls and /home

[rfharabin]

I have changed the password it appears but...

It did not go exactly as shown in your link to pepperminty. I did not get an

Code: Select all

your_name

to appear after entering

Code: Select all

 ls /home 

So I entered

Code: Select all

passwd (my name)

.The image is blurred for some reason but I think it you will be able to use it . If you cannot I will do another.

P1000709.jpg

I restarted and went into Mint and was able to update four files after entering the password. BUT when I tried to open the startup manager I had the same problem as before.

The password manager brought up a small window that asked "Enter the administrative password" And then after about three seconds comes back with an error. "incorrect password, try again"
Next I tried to open the Software Manager and remove and reinstall Startup Manager but with the same result password wise.

If I have another password I sure do not know how it was installed or what it could be. I set mint to open to the desktop without a password.
Could there be another password?
Any ideas what to do next?

[wayne128]

So you are still able to login as a normal user.

As I do not use Startup Manager I do not really know what it could do to your inability to run with root password.

Perhaps, just wild guess, instead of remove Startup manager and reinstall, try to remove and purge Startup manager totally, then login again to see what happen.
or uninstall ( with purge) all those programs that you have recently installed, then see what happen.. something was messing root password?

[rfharabin]

The only programs I have installed are Opera, and the Startup-Manager plus a weather applet to the panel.

I opened a terminal and used sudo and got;

sudo purge.jpg

Looking at the "E" I clicked on the Computer shortcut on the desktop curious which partition was "E" and none of my disks appear. So I opened GParted (with password) and all are there. One thing at a time. I tried to see how to mount them but could not see how. They have always been there. I am a n00b. Learning how to use Gimp etc. is a slow process.

If you open the Software Manager and search Startup Manager it will give a brief explanation and a picture that should help you understand it better.

Enough for the day.

Before I posted here I posted in the Main Edition Support looking for help as I have played with all four Ubuntu Mint versions and went there by habit. Did I goof something up following advice there? I have not put boot code on my external HD though.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=166141

[wayne128]

The only programs I have installed are Opera, and the Startup-Manager plus a weather applet to the panel.

I opened a terminal and used sudo and got;

sudo purge.jpg

As I mentioned, I did not use Startup Manager, so I cannot help much.

However, looking at your screen shot, I would say this, if I wish to purge a installation, which was previously install via synaptic, or apt-get, then, I would use this command

sudo apt-get remove --purge <name_of_the_program>

So I opened GParted (with password) and all are there. One thing at a time. I tried to see how to mount them but could not see how. They have always been there. I am a n00b. Learning how to use Gimp etc. is a slow process.

If you can open gparted with password...
well, it says your root password is working

so on your thread title,,,, Password no longer works,,, might be already 'solved'??

Before I posted here I posted in the Main Edition Support looking for help as I have played with all four Ubuntu Mint versions and went there by habit. Did I goof something up following advice there? I have not put boot code on my external HD though.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=166141

I did not read everything in that thread, however, I would like to say this.
I have never use grub-customizer, I have used startup manager long long time ago, then when something broke, I no longer use it for last few years.


If all you want is to set your chosen OS as a default to boot, from grub menu, I can say this, you do not need to use grub customizer or startup manager ( or similar program).
you can always edit a little bit to a grub line...
or you can install easybcd on Win7 and use GUI tool to click and set default OS to boot.
or you can even have both of them...they all can work...

[rfharabin]

However, looking at your screen shot, I would say this, if I wish to purge a installation, which was previously install via synaptic, or apt-get, then, I would use this command

sudo apt-get remove --purge <name_of_the_program>

I did this and it gave me a message..."E: Unable to locate package Startup-Manager". It must have done the job. The problem now is the there is still a shortcut in the menu and on the desktop. I will have learn how to rid of the menu shortcut...later.

If you can open gparted with password...
well, it says your root password is working

so on your thread title,,,, Password no longer works,,, might be already 'solved'??

Not really. What I have learned is the I have/had a different problem. Earlier I had not tried to update nor opened gparted. Now I notice that both the Software Manager and the Startup Manager will not open. When I allowed Mint to update it proved that the password worked OK, And even though apt-get shows that the Startup Manager is gone when I click on a shortcut it opens a password window and then tells me that I have not entered the right password. So maybe both the Startup and Software managers are gone and just the shortcuts are left? This was likely my original problem but I did not notice it until I seen that an update was available and allowed the update and then opened gparted.

you can always edit a little bit to a grub line...
or you can install easybcd on Win7 and use GUI tool to click and set default OS to boot.
or you can even have both of them...they all can work...

[/quote]

Thanks for the program idea. I installed it and there is only one boot option shown, but maybe later I will use it to add a boot option for Linux and have the default I want.
When I installed Mint LMDE it installed something in the disk0 System Reserved Partition that brings up the grub menu and defaults to Mint. I have looked through the System Reserved Partition in Disk0 but must go at when I have lots of time to look at everything in there in WordPad and see if I can find that Grub menu and change it. It may be all in assembly language, even the menu options. I hoped that Startup Manager would do this for me. That is what the program is for and I found it in the Software Manager. Also I wonder if installing Startup Manager messed up both it and the Software Manager.

NOW...My main problem is not having a workable Software manager. Information in this thread shows how to put the boot information into my disk3 sdd1 and I can clean out my MBR to get it back to what it was if nothing else will work. Earlier I tried to open the Software Manager to uninstall the Startup Manager. Maybe you are right. Maybe I should close this thread now and start another for the Software Manager and if I have to, another thread for the grub menu problem in My disk0 MBR. What do you think is best?

[wayne128]

NOW...My main problem is not having a workable Software manager. Information in this thread shows how to put the boot information into my disk3 sdd1 and I can clean out my MBR to get it back to what it was if nothing else will work. Earlier I tried to open the Software Manager to uninstall the Startup Manager. Maybe you are right. Maybe I should close this thread now and start another for the Software Manager and if I have to, another thread for the grub menu problem in My disk0 MBR. What do you think is best?

I think it is better to open two threads

one for Software Manager

another for default boot selection on grub menu.

[rfharabin]

Thanks, that is what I thought but I wanted an old timers opinion. It will be a couple days though.
And thanks for all the help. You have likely helped more than you realize as I now have more bookmarks to sites and PDF's to study.