[System] New guy. K19.1. forgotten password-tried recommended solutions. No go.

[JayBrew]

Hello and thanks for listening
I have a running Kubuntu 19.10 system on an I7 laptop. I installed this some time ago and have no idea what my password is. I've tried all the things I can find online like:

Sudo passwd using the Konsole (it asks for my current user password- which I don't know)
interrupting the boot sequence at GRUB and selecting the root (it also asks for my current user password - which I dont know)
I tried to create a startup disk with startup disk creator. I downloaded an .iso to a thumb drive, but SDC also gives a priv error.

I know very little about Linux (other than I should not have set a password!!) as you can tell . I'm out of ideas. I'm willing to do a complete re-install if that's easiest but since I can't create a startup disk, this seems problematic too.

Thanks for your patience
John

[Fred47]

A couple of minor points 19.10 is kind of old. You said "I unstalled this..." I assume you mean "I installed this..." Here is a link to recovering your password https://linuxconfig.org/recover-rese...-root-password that will allow you to create a new password. It requires you to use the terminal, which maybe be off putting to you. Personally I'm in favor of a reinstall with the latest LTS

[claydoh]

Kubuntu 19.10 is EOL, and is now unsupported. Probably time to install a more current version - LTS are supported for 3 years -- 20.04, and the the upcoming 22.04. other releases only have a 9 month lifespan, with upgrades available every 6 months.
You can't get any sort of updates or security/browser updates, as the archove for packages has been archived.


However, you can easily change the password from the recovery options in your grub menu.

When you get to the grub menu, selects "Advanced Options, then select a line that has "Recovery Mode".

From there it will get to a menu. Select 'Root"
Hit "enter" when prompted.

Then enter: passwd username
You don't use (or need) sudo here, . Once you have reset the password, just hit ctrl-alt-delete to reboot.

it will look like this:
https://www.maketecheasier.com/boot-...y-mode-ubuntu/
The article has a command to run to mount the OS drive with write privileges, but you should not need to do that for Root mode. Only other options.
IF you are seeing errors related to being unable to write to disk, you can use the command and try again.

If you are still having errors, record the exact messages you are getting.

I should not have set a password!!

If you don't set a password, you might as well be using windows, without an antivirus and anti-malware

GRUB and selecting the root (it also asks for my current user password - which I dont know)

Now, in recovery mode, you should NOT be seeing a password prompt. Don't use sudo when running commands in recovery mode.

It might help to take photos if you are still seeing issues.

[JayBrew]

Hmmm I guess as a noob I can't post the pic, but here's the imgur link:

(imgur dot com goes here)/a/PSmfdu4

OK, this is where I ended up with GRUB. Once again, I'm stalled with the PW issue. Thanks...I really want to get this working again. :-)

[JayBrew]

And yes, I *installed* this some time ago.

You're right, and I started this saga to update to a newer supported version. Unfortunately I know so little about linux that I've spiraled into wall where I'm stuck now.

The text after I select root after invoking Grub via esc during boot is "Give root password for maintenance (or press Control-D to continue): "

[DoYouKubuntu]

Welcome to KFN, @JayBrew!

Don't worry about being a newbie--we all were at one time.

As others have said, the version you're trying to save is quite old, and I'm guessing [from the fact that you can't remember your password] that you haven't exactly been using this computer very much. How important is it to you, really, to retain its files? I mean do you have user-created files that are really important to you--photographs, documents, etc.? Did you back them up?

If you're okay with losing its existing data, the absolute *best* solution is to do a fresh, clean install of 21.10 (or 20.04LTS if you're into using long-term supported versions). I'm on 21.10 and love it, and wouldn't go back to 20.04, but you may want to. A fresh install will give you a clean slate...and I love clean slates!

You can install using various methods--the most common (I believe) is via USB stick. Using a different computer, just download a current version, make sure you check its size/checksum to verify that it's good, put it on your USB thumb drive, boot up the computer using the USB stick, and start the install. If you need help getting any of that going, just ask!

[claydoh]

(or press Control-D to continue):

So.....did you try that option? I don't recall even needing to use a password in recovery before, maybe ctrl-d gets you there.

I started this saga to update to a newer supported version

That may be more work than it is worth, since they closed down, or rather moved, the repos for 19.10.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades

[JayBrew]

Thanks folks. Yes, I did hit control D to continue and it just brought me to the menu again, so no joy there.

I have nothing on this PC that I want to save, so it sounds like I may be able to cut my losses by doing a fresh install. I have downloaded a new .iso last night on a thumb drive. If I understand correctly (big if) I can boot to CMOS, then select the thumb drive as the boot location and follow the bouncing ball?

The machine is an older I7 so it has plenty of life left, I think. More so than its operator at this rate!

[DoYouKubuntu]

I have nothing on this PC that I want to save, so it sounds like I may be able to cut my losses by doing a fresh install. I have downloaded a new .iso last night on a thumb drive. If I understand correctly (big if) I can boot to CMOS, then select the thumb drive as the boot location and follow the bouncing ball?

Yep! That should do it. Let us know if you need any help.

[JayBrew]

OK good, I'm moving the iso to the thumb drive with Balena Etcher, then will give it a try.

Thanks so much. I hope this works.

[JayBrew]

Did that, but got "GRUB error: out of memory. Entering rescue mode... grub rescue>

I used a relatively small thumb drive, but big enough to hold the .iso. Would this be the problem (does the boot process use the thumb drive as ram during the boot?)

[DoYouKubuntu]

Did that, but got "RUB error: out of memory. Entering rescue mode... grub rescue>

I used a relatively small thumb drive, but big enough to hold the .iso. Would this be the problem (does the boot process use the thumb drive as ram during the boot?)

I've never seen that before. And, unfortunately, I can't help you solve the problem. Someone else will come along, though. We'll get you going! It could be something as simple as a bad thumb drive, or, as you mentioned, perhaps it's just too small.

[JayBrew]

Thanks. Tried twice with the same result. Hopefully someone has seen this before.

[jlittle]

"error: out of memory" may be an old grub bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...2/+bug/1851311), for which the workaround was the grub command "rmmod tpm", but in your case I don't know where you'd get to enter that. I would expect all the 20.04 isos to have had this fixed in 2020.

Exactly which iso did you download, from where?

[JayBrew]

I downloaded kubuntu 21.10-desktop-amd64

I am pretty sure it came from Kubuntu.org

Did I get the wrong .iso or from the wrong place? I did not verify the download but I did see it complete successfully (3,293,334 KB)

Thank you