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You might be able to boot to single user. Generally CTL-X, at the boot screen, then add "single" to the kernel boot parameters.
Alternatively, get a Knoppix (or other) Live CD/DVD and boot from that. Mount the root partition from the laptop's hard drive, and blank the password in /etc/shadow
e.g from something like this:
k5054:$6$gVGCezrmD49p1H/a$S2YUlUknRaPHIjdskN6dQ1GJeZpxxg4hlnuCB68CO8ZgmGEmAQiYjn0wjc83bM8aGOaYTdprtva0rIRRGVLSu1:18108:0:99999:7::: to this
k5054::18108:0:99999:7:::
Save, reboot, change password when you get logged in.
Next, generate ssh-keys for your both your Desktop and Laptop, and do a ssh-copy-id between the two. You should now be able to ssh in either direction without a password. If you'd prefer to retain the security of a password, add a password when doing the ssh-keygen.
If you'd prefer not to hard-boot the laptop you might be able to CTL-ALT-DEL to trigger a reboot (or a tap on the power button might work too). If the "Vulcan Neck Pinch" doesn't work from a GUI screen, you should be able to get to a non-gui login using CTL-ALT-Fn. I'm not sure which virtual console Ubuntu uses. Fedora uses VT1, and other systems uses VT7 or VT5, so try F4 or F6.
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Thanks so much. Somehow I've literally been typing my password for weeks without actually knowing it. I was one character off today and couldn't get it. Yes, I'm obviously senile and a savant at the same time, because I can type a password incorrectly for weeks then not know it.
OY!!
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So, PEBKAC, then?
It still might be worth generating some ssh keys (preferably an ed25519 key-type), and check you can ssh between machines using them. And you never know when a Live CD/DVD might be useful too, so it might be worth burning one and making sure you know how to boot from it. Or a USB stick, which is faster than an optical drive.
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Yes, PEBKAC.
I will implement a process to handle this in the near future.
Hopefully before I get into that situation again.
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It's nice to know that Ubuntu makes it really hard for the people who steal your laptop.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Grub usually gives you a few seconds to interrupt the normal boot and allows you to choose single user/emergency. I don't think you need a password from there, and can reset the root password. I would check, but my desktop (Ubuntu 19) has a hardware problem at the moment.
Also, (assuming it is allowing you to type in the password), could it be a problem with a key on your laptop keyboard - which is going to be hard to spot when entering a password. Can you plug in an external keyboard - or telnet/ssh from your desktop.
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Thanks so much. Somehow I've literally been typing my password for weeks without actually knowing it. I was one character off today and couldn't get it. Yes, I'm obviously senile and a savant at the same time, because I can type a password incorrectly for weeks then not know it.
OY!!
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LOL! Been there. Done that. I'd assumed you weren't as stupid as me!
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5teveH wrote: LOL! Been there. Done that. I'd assumed you weren't as stupid as me!
Thanks for admitting it. And, yes, I'm far stupider.
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- Try another keyoard?
- Is there in linux something like Alt&<numkeypadasciicode> to enter a character?
hope dies last
It does not solve my Problem, but it answers my question
modified 19-Jan-21 21:04pm.
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0x01AA wrote: hope dies last
that gave me a smile... thanks so much.
Somehow I've literally been typing my password for weeks without actually knowing it. I was one character off today and couldn't get it. Yes, I'm obviously senile and a savant at the same time, because I can type a password incorrectly for weeks then not know it.
OY!!
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Quote: typing my password for weeks without actually knowing it Same here
It does not solve my Problem, but it answers my question
modified 19-Jan-21 21:04pm.
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I guess it is highly secure this way. Oy!! I'm just so stupid.
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Pogo said it best: We have met the enemy and it is us.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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theoldfool wrote: Pogo said it best: We have met the enemy and it is us.
Haha, I remember Pogo saying that... and it has never been more true!!! Thanks for the laugh.
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raddevus wrote: there does seem to be a problem with it not accepting your password
There's something to that, I'm convinced of it.
I've had a number of Linux distributions on a laptop I swear sometimes refuses to accept my password even though I know, absolutely and positively, has been typed in correctly. Then I force a reboot and everything's fine, on the very first attempt.
Every once in a while it's the NumLock key. Being a laptop, it doesn't have a dedicated numeric keypad, and some keys (YUI/HJK/NM, I think) can be reused to enter digits. But when I get in the situation described above, more often than not, hitting NumLock doesn't make any difference. For a while, I had temporarily changed my password so it doesn't use any of those multi-use buttons...and hadn't encountered the problem. It could have been just a coincidence. It's never happened often enough for me to notice any particular pattern or become a predictable thing.
Same laptop ran various versions of Windows for years prior to that, without ever exhibiting this behavior.
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Thanks for the input. I think I've encountered this too because I'm not sure how I continually typed it wrong so many times. I finally got it all resolved. Somehow I had typed one char in place of another but for a couple of weeks had been typing it properly, I guess.
And when I looked it up there are some cases where certain versions of ubuntu (in the past) did have a problem.
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Muscle memory is also definitely a thing. I swear I have some passwords I can type blindfolded in a fraction of a second. Yet if you were to ask me to write it down on a piece of paper, I'd have a hard time doing it correctly.
Then every once in a while I have a brain fart and go into a panic because I have no idea what a password is, and it's one I use so frequently I've never bothered entering it in a password manager...one day it'll become permanent and I'll be truly screwed...
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dandy72 wrote: Then every once in a while I have a brain fart and go into a panic because I have no idea what a password is,
It's for realz! I use a password manager for 99.9% of my passwords so that's why I'm so messed up on typing the password too.
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Luxury!
I had a bank (PIN) card for seven years, used daily, and one day it got eaten by the hole in the wall because I couldn't remember my PIN -- that's four digits!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: one day it got eaten by the hole in the wall because I couldn't remember my PIN -- that's four digits!
That one made me LOL! Not at you, just at the situation. It's crazy how you can __know__ something until you try to __know__ that you __know__ it.
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Welcome to the club!
My favorite bout with a major brain phart is related to shifting my care into reverse.
<narrative>
Went to pick up a pizza, having driven their in my Mazda 5-speed. Upon receiving the heavenly delight I put it on the passenger's seat, careful to prop up the back so it sat straight despite the seat's but-wrapping format. Started the engine and could not shift into reverse. I had fronted into the space and things were not good. After some crazy struggling I put it in neutral, pushed it back a ways, and drove home - parking carefully in a space I could glide into without going into reverse. After feeding, I went out to try again - no luck.
The next day I made it to the dealer (fortunately, still under warranty) and told him the problem; left (Mrs Wife drove me home in her 6-speed - which is an important point). Well - much later that day the dealer called and said he found nothing wrong - so come and get the car.
It was when I got into the car at the dealers - who fronted into a space on his lot - that I realized what was going on. I was shifting into reverse as though it was Mrs. Wife's chariot. Hers is to the front left - mine to the back-right . . .
<narrative>
To coin a pun: brain-phart's really stink - and like their name-sake, are often good for a laugh.
Ravings en masse^ |
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Fantastic story. And, very interesting that the User Interface. All my manual shift cars have been down right so that is interesting about the up and left.
It also reminds me of a junky car I drove when I was young.
I drove it for a couple of years and it ran great.
One day at the top of a building (in a parking garage) I put the key in and it would not start no matter what I did.
I was angry so I got out and called my wife (before cell phones) and she came and got me.
It was Friday so I decided I would not drive the car again and I went out over the weekend and bought my first new car.
I drove the new car monday morning and then that evening I decided that I needed to get the junker out of the garage (off the building roof).
I went up to look at the car again.
For some reason I stuck in the key in again and tried. nothing.
Then I looked down at the automatic shifter -- It was in [d].
I eased it into [p] and tried starting it again and it fired right up.
Yes, for some reason I could remove the key and put it in the ignition even though it was in drive.
I drove the car out of the garage and sold it soon afterward.
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