<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 3:30 PM, Rick Hornsby <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:richardjhornsby@gmail.com" target="_blank">richardjhornsby@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im"><br>
<br>
On Dec 19, 2012, at 15:18, Thomas Cranston <<a href="mailto:thomas.w.cranston@gmail.com">thomas.w.cranston@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> 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.<br>
><br>
<br>
</div>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.<br>
<br>
I think you're mixing two things up below.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
<br>
> tom@tom-Inspiron-1520-mint ~ $ passwd<br>
> Changing password for tom.<br>
> (current) UNIX password:<br>
> passwd: Authentication token manipulation error<br>
> passwd: password unchanged<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>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.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
<br>
> tom@tom-Inspiron-1520-mint ~ $ sudo passwd<br>
> [sudo] password for tom:<br>
> Enter new UNIX password:<br>
> Retype new UNIX password:<br>
> passwd: password updated successfully<br>
> tom@tom-Inspiron-1520-mint ~ $<br>
<br>
</div>You just changed the password for the user root. Not tom. Again, these are two completely separate identities/users.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> tom@tom-Inspiron-1520-mint ~ $ sudo su root<br>
> [sudo] password for tom:<br>
<br>
</div>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.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
<br>
> #tried the new password<br>
><br>
> Sorry, try again.<br>
<br>
</div>correct, and expected.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
<br>
> [sudo] password for tom: # tried original password<br>
><br>
> tom-Inspiron-1520-mint tom #<br>
><br>
<br>
</div>I'm not following this part, but I'm inferring that the sudo command succeeded?<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> I want to be able to change the password that I login with after I startup my laptop.<br>
<br>
</div>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.<br>
<br>
Use the command "passwd" (no sudo), and on the first prompt, provide tom's current password that you just used to successfully log in.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
sudo = superuser do (or, "do command as superuser")<br></blockquote><div><br>OK, that worked.<br><br>Thanks<br><br>So much for Mint tutorial:<br><br> <a href="http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/851">http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/851</a><br>
<br><p>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);font-family:Arial,Tahoma,'Century gothic',sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:24px">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:</span></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;line-height:19px"><li style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:1.6em;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;list-style-position:outside">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);font-family:Arial,Tahoma,'Century gothic',sans-serif;font-size:13px">sudo passwd</span></li></ul>
<p style="margin-top:5px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:20px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:5px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:5px;padding-left:0px;line-height:24px">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);font-family:Arial,Tahoma,'Century gothic',sans-serif;font-size:13px">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.<br></span></p>Thanks for the help.<br><br><br>Tom<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
-rick<br>
</font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">_______________________________________________<br>
colug-432 mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:colug-432@colug.net">colug-432@colug.net</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.colug.net/mailman/listinfo/colug-432" target="_blank">http://lists.colug.net/mailman/listinfo/colug-432</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br>