[Swlug] Root Password

[Sharon]

Hi,
I set the computer up so I don't have to log in at start up as I'm the 
only user.  Hence on

sharon at SharonDesktop ~ $ sudo id
[sudo] password for sharon:

I don't know the password.


  I typed in

sharon at SharonDesktop ~ $ id
uid=1000(sharon) gid=1000(sharon) 
groups=1000(sharon),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),108(lpadmin),110(sambashare),126(vboxusers)

Should I follow the instructions that Mark sent to reset the password?

Oh and just for info Linux Mint is Ubuntu based.

Thank you for the help.

Sharon

On 13/02/16 10:06, Dave Cridland wrote:
> Sharon,
>
> On 13 February 2016 at 09:07, Sharon <dillyg23 at googlemail.com 
> <mailto:dillyg23 at googlemail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Can anyone help.  I have completely forgotten my 'root' password. 
>     I can get into linux mint and use my computer I just can't update
>     anything.  I would prefer not to have to reinstall if there is a
>     way round this.  I would probably be classed as a Newbie as I use
>     it as an operating system to do what I need.  I am not into the
>     nitty gritty as it were.
>
>
> Don't worry, I doubt you'll need to reinstall.Not unless you setup 
> full-disk encryption, and I think you'd know if you had. In fact, you 
> might not even have forgotten a password. And don't worry about using 
> the computer to do what you need - that is, after all, what they're 
> there for.
>
> As you'll have seen from the other replies, there's two ways of 
> handling root access in Linux distributions, and which Mint does will 
> dictate your next move, so the first thing to do is find out which:
>
> 1) Login, using your normal username and password.
>
> 2) Open a terminal. I'm going to tell you to use lots of terminal 
> commands, not because they're special or indeed different to the apps 
> you'll normally run, but because once a terminal is open I can give 
> you plain text to cut and paste into them, like this:
>
> sudo id
>
> Running that command will prompt you for a password. Use your normal 
> password, the same one you used to login with.
>
> If this works, you have not lost your root password - you simply never 
> had one. This is OK. Whenever you're prompted for the root password, 
> just use yours.
>
> 3) If it didn't work, there's two options. Either your computer was 
> installed with two users, one of which is an administrator (and your 
> user isn't), or else, much to my surprise, there actually is a root 
> password. Let's find out. Type the following command:
>
> id
>
> That should, amongst other things, print your "uid". If this is 1000, 
> the chances are that the computer actually has a root password. Follow 
> the instructions for resetting a Fedora root password that Mark sent.
>
> If it's not 1000, then did you have another user setup on the system, 
> perhaps? You can probably see it on the login screen in a drop-down. 
> You'll need to reset that password using the instructions that Colin sent.
>
> If you get stuck, let me know where you got to.
>
> Dave.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Swlug mailing list
> Swlug at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/swlug

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/swlug/attachments/20160213/9551146c/attachment.html>