It might be asked for the root password, rather than your user password. “root” is the administrator user on Linux systems. On a single-user machine, it’s easiest just to use the same password for both, but if you didn’t, try the other password if you remember it. If you’ve forgotten either password, you’ll need to reset it.
To reset the root password:
If you can log in (i.e. you know your personal password), and run a terminal, type the command
groups, e.g.:
Code:
[gareth@gareth-desktop ~]$ groups
gareth wheel dialout
If you see “wheel” in the output, then you can change root’s password thus:
Code:
[gareth@gareth-desktop ~]$ sudo passwd root
[sudo] password for gareth: # Enter your personal password.
Changing password for user root.
New password: # Choose new password for root.
If you don’t see “wheel” in the
groups output, then changing the root password is going to be more complicated!
To reset your personal password:
You need to log in as root. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1–6 until you see a text-mode log-in screen (root cannot log in in graphical mode.) Once you’ve logged in as root, run:
Code:
passwd your_user_name
After setting the password, log out (Ctrl+D), then press Ctrl+Alt+F1–6 until you get back to a graphical log-in screen.
Linear Mode
