[colug-432] Change Root Password

[Thomas Cranston]

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 3:30 PM, Rick Hornsby <richardjhornsby at gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> On Dec 19, 2012, at 15:18, Thomas Cranston <thomas.w.cranston at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Running Mint 14.1 The root password by default is the same as whoever
> installed. During setup, I used a totally unacceptable PW even by my
> standards.
> >
>
> I've never used mint, but it may be that the same password is established
> for the root and user (tom) accounts during the installation. After that,
> however, they would be separate and independent entities.
>
> I think you're mixing two things up below.
>
>
> > tom at tom-Inspiron-1520-mint ~ $ passwd
> > Changing password for tom.
> > (current) UNIX password:
> > passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
> > passwd: password unchanged
>
>
> passwd, when executed in a non-root context, first prompts for the CURRENT
> password of the account. That is, the password you're using now to log in
> as tom.
>
>
> > tom at tom-Inspiron-1520-mint ~ $ sudo passwd
> > [sudo] password for tom:
> > Enter new UNIX password:
> > Retype new UNIX password:
> > passwd: password updated successfully
> > tom at tom-Inspiron-1520-mint ~ $
>
> You just changed the password for the user root. Not tom. Again, these are
> two completely separate identities/users.
>
> > tom at tom-Inspiron-1520-mint ~ $ sudo su root
> > [sudo] password for tom:
>
> This is asking for tom's password. Which to this point remains unchanged.
> sudo is asking you the current user - tom - to authenticate as himself
> before allowing tom elevated privileges. tom is not expected to and should
> not know the root password.
>
>
> > #tried the new password
> >
> > Sorry, try again.
>
> correct, and expected.
>
>
> > [sudo] password for tom: # tried original password
> >
> > tom-Inspiron-1520-mint tom #
> >
>
> I'm not following this part, but I'm inferring that the sudo command
> succeeded?
>
> > I want to be able to change the password that I login with after I
> startup my laptop.
>
> Yep. You had the correct approach above, but I think missed what Linux was
> telling you. Forget about sudo for a minute, I think it is just confusing
> you.
>
> Use the command "passwd" (no sudo), and on the first prompt, provide tom's
> current password that you just used to successfully log in.
>
> Remember, if you prefix a command with "sudo", you're running that command
> AS root, a completely different user than tom, and you're therefore
> manipulating objects that belong to root, not to tom - which is what you're
> asking for.
>
> sudo = superuser do (or, "do command as superuser")
>

OK, that worked.

Thanks

So much for Mint tutorial:

 http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/851

The easiest method of resetting a user’s account password in Linux is to
use the passwd command. To do it on Linux Mint or any Linux distribution
that uses sudo, start a shell terminal and type the following command:

   - sudo passwd

 You will, of course, be prompted to authenticate with your current
password before you are given the opportunity of changing it. On a
distribution that does not use sudo, call the passwd command without sudo.
Thanks for the help.


Tom

>
> -rick
> _______________________________________________
> colug-432 mailing list
> colug-432 at colug.net
> http://lists.colug.net/mailman/listinfo/colug-432
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.colug.net/pipermail/colug-432/attachments/20121219/9ed9b3b1/attachment.html