Comments on: Howto:Recover your username and password/Fix Grub 21 Error in Ubuntu

By: Choker

Choker — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 12:18:48 +0000

I was first using ubuntu 9.10 which always ask for administrators password before i can access my windows 7 partition and i think its cool that way …. but now that i install the version 10.10 i can’t have that again and i think my windows partition is not secured …. please can anyone help me…

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:08:35 +0000

I have also tried this fix. but i get a line to input a unix password. the screen will not allow anything to be typed in. I am running ubuntu 8.1 and I can’t download updates without a password

By: Daani

Daani — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:22:57 +0000

I’ve tried using this recovery system and I get stuck on setting a new password. It doesn’t let me make a new one and the old one doesn’t work. I had to use the ls /home in order to get the username to come up and suggestions ???

By: biniam taddele

biniam taddele — Tue, 11 May 2010 05:40:27 +0000

dear friends i need to see the current password before i login is there any command like ls/home to show the current password…
thank u for your coming help!

By: penny

penny — Sun, 02 May 2010 07:20:34 +0000

It worked! I have been trying to get into Ubuntu all day. My XP isn’t working well, even after trying the Recovery Console, so I thought I’d just give Ubuntu a try. I heard so much about how much better it is than Windows. I followed your instructions and got the username first - I had never been prompted for it, nor a password. Once I got the user name it allowed me to change the password. Thanks so much! I am now able to use it. On to discovering =)

Oh, I did go thru the recovery mode first like the instructions said.

By: matt

matt — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:09:59 +0000

It didn’t let me type in a new password. please help me, i need the computer to work!
Please reply

By: Kirstie

Kirstie — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:35:07 +0000

HELP!!! i’ve made a major boo-boo, whilst trying to remove one user to set up another, I seem to have removed all users from the webbook so I cannot get into it!!! when i tried the tip above, it told me that the directory was not found. Any ideas????

By: venkatesh

venkatesh — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:23:14 +0000

VENKAT says…

Its very helpful to me.I have recovered my ubuntu password and user name.Thank u very much

By: Henno

Henno — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:12:25 +0000

Thanks!! This was very helpful!

By: reloya35

reloya35 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:54:25 +0000

I got the “error 21″ and tried using your recovery system. One problem (I think); I get “answers. I get “(hd1,4) and (hd1,6).” I tried using the first, the second, and both. I get a screen that says, “Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time. root@ubuntu:-#” with a flashing square. But the hard drive doesn’t show activity. I tried reboot, but still get the dreaded error 21. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

By: sourav mohanty

sourav mohanty — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:19:43 +0000

Good easy steps ….

Sourav Mohnaty (Linux Lingo)

By: Sourav Mohanty

Sourav Mohanty — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:05:35 +0000

Thats good……..

By: SkeRoy

SkeRoy — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:47:44 +0000

@Thomas : and modify your /boot/grub/menu.lst to add a password and tun “lock alternative” to true !

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:28:08 +0000

…or encrypt your filesystems so it doesn’t matter if someone can read your hard drive or not! Of course, THEN if you lose your password you’re truly out of luck….

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:59:10 +0000

If you don’t like the idea of anyone being able to boot recovery mode then set grub passwords.

Then change your BIOS so prevent booting off removable media.
Then lock your PC case to prevent BIOS resets.
Then fix your firewire ports (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/200109).
Does e-sata have the same problem? Probably. Best just to epoxy all your PC ports.
Then fix your wireless (http://802.11ninja.net/papers/firmware_attack.pdf)
Finally encase your PC in cement and throw it into the ocean

By: karlzt

karlzt — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:02:15 +0000

i ‘Googlebookmarked’ this one

thanks

By: Susan Caverta

Susan Caverta — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:01:36 +0000

Time is the best healer. If you fall, get back up.

By: Murali

Murali — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 08:27:41 +0000

Really helpfull tip.
A ton Thanks !

By: enli

enli — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:16:45 +0000

I knew that password recovery was easy but didnt know that its the matter of just “passwd”.

Thanks,
- EnLi