Change user password while password is empty

Question

I have a realy strange problem in Ubuntu 11.10. I have by accident my password set to empty. If I wan't to install software now the system asks for a password, but I haven't one anymore. If I enter my old password it sais it's wrong and if I leave it empty it also does. Now I wan't to set my password back, but the system asks for the old password before I can change it. That password doesn't exist, so I can't do anything anymore! Can someone help me please?

I can't understand why Ubuntu accept an empty password if you can't enter it anywhere... — totymedli, Sep 09 '14 at 18:21

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 11 '11 at 18:36

8

Try running passwd from a terminal. It'll ask you for your old password, and then for your new one.
If it doesn't accept the old one there, run sudo passwd <username> replacing <username> with your username. That will make sure you can change it without the need for your old one, in the hope that it accepts the sudo password.

answered Nov 11 '11 at 18:36

RobinJ

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when you try sudo passwd then you need to old-password for execution of passwd command (Due to sudo......) – Manish Trivedi Jan 01 '12 at 17:17
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Not if the password is blank! This is useful trick, thanks RobinJ. – Ken Fehling Aug 09 '17 at 20:27

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

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You will need to boot in to recovery mode (press shift key after BIOS post and keep it pressed until the grub menu is shown) and drop to a root console. There you will be able to change the password for your current user.

Here you can find a very good example of what to do to reset your password.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

Community

1

answered Nov 11 '11 at 13:44

Bruno Pereira

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Thank you for the answer. My next problem is that I get an authentication error or something like that. What am I doing wrong? – Wietse de Vries Nov 11 '11 at 14:21
Where do you get the fault at? Can you paste the output of the fault, when do you get the fault? – Bruno Pereira Nov 11 '11 at 14:29
I get the error when I wrote the password for the second time. I don't have time for trying again so I can't give the whole error now. – Wietse de Vries Nov 11 '11 at 15:09

Change user password while password is empty

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