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**raeraefar** · 09-22-2009

Hey Yall,

This is my first forum ever although I started using the net in the early 90's when it first became widely available in Australia! I feel a little silly! I can usually work most things out on my own, but not this time!

I have been messing around with settings for two weeks now on and off to try and gain access to my late husband's laptop (RIP beautiful man!!!). It is loaded with Ubuntu 8 and prompts for a username I dont know and a password I dont know either.

I have followed many guides...I am relatively confident this stand alone machine is set to single user mode. I also think I have managed to reset the root password. But with no username, where do I log in with this? I have tried u/n root and it tells me I cannot use this login screen to do this. I have never used linux before so I'm a dummy as dummy can be!

I am most reluctant to format the machine in case there is any precious data from my husband that I might like to keep.

Boy am I feeling frustrated!

So thanks for all the great info in here - I certainly have learnt alot already and I hope there is someone out there with the patience and inclination to help me work it out!

Cheers

**reed9** · 09-22-2009

Hi and welcome!

You can't log in as root through the login manager, by default, as you have found out. From the login manager, press CTRL+ALT+F2 to drop to a console. From there, you can login as root.

You can add a user by typing

Code:

adduser

and following the prompts.

If you know the username on the machine, you can reset that password from root with

Code:

passwd <username>

**reed9** · 09-22-2009

Hmm, I forgot to mention you should add your new user to the admin group right off the bat, so you have root privileges with the user. Here is how:
Add User to “sudoers” File Benaiah’s Computer Experiences

You won't by default have access to other users home folders as your user. To change ownership of the folder, do

Code:

sudo chown -R <user>:users /home

Where <user> is your username.

oz · 09-22-2009

Welcome to the forums!

Hope you will have lots of fun running Linux!

**raeraefar** · 09-23-2009

The adduser command is saying only one or two names allowed...I'm stuck again! Sorry! Is there a way to detect what my husband's username was somewhere? I have followed your instructions, including the link using root as my username...but to no end. Thanku it was exciting to move past the login screen I have been staring at for so long...even if only for a moment!

**reed9** · 09-23-2009

You were able to log in as root from the prompt, correct?

Type

Code:

cat /etc/passwd

This should list all the users on the machine.

**raeraefar** · 09-23-2009

Yes - it all went smoothly until the adduser command. I logged in as root and saw an intro, it is recording each time I try this, a disclaimer re the software and warranty and a link and then this prompt
root@trip-laptop:~#

**raeraefar** · 09-23-2009

The cat /etc/passwd command produces a page of information which I cannot make sense of - I do not see any list of usernames...but I am also a dummy so it could be right under my nose...eek...

**reed9** · 09-23-2009

How long is the output? Are you able to post it here and we can take a look at it?

**reed9** · 09-23-2009

You can also do

Code:

ls /home

This will list the files in the /home directory, it's quite likely there will only be one, and it's name will in all probability be the username.

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