I have a fresh install of Linux Mint 18.3 (System setup: dual-boot with Windows 10)
I set up 4 accounts:
user_1
user_2
user_3
user_4
I did not write the passwords down, woke up the next morning and couldn't remember any of them.
I attempted to change the passwords for all four users as follows:
(1) Booted my system and when the Grub menu appeared,
I made sure my Linux Mint 18.3 OS was highlighted,
I pressed e (for edit).
(2) Arrowed down to the line that starts with "linux"
It looks like this: linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-38-generic,
root=UUID=b1bde976-50e2-4c32-a760-17b091b4202f ro quiet splash
$vt_handoff
(3) At the end of that line I deleted the words,
"quiet splash $vt_handoff" if that is there, and put: rw init=/bin/bash
(4) I then pressed F10 to boot.
This resulted as a boot into a root shell.
I did an ls /home and the system outputted the following:
user_2
user_3
(5) I entered a new password for both these users as follows:
passwd user_1 (and when prompted twice for the password,
I entered the new password both times)
(6) I then entered the following command: sync
(7) Next I entered the following command: reboot -f
Note: I also did the same as step (4) step (5), step (6) and step (7) for root
At this point I successfully achieved in changing the password for user_1, user_2 and root.
However, I am still unable to login to user_1 and user_4 at the login screen, as I still do not know the correct passwords for these users.
My Question(s):
(a) How do I change the passwords for user_1 and user_4?
I assume both are administrative users, especially since it is,
my belief that the first user created after a fresh install is,
an administrative account by default.
(b) Why when I log in as user_2 or user_3 and do an ls /home does it only show me,
the user accounts for user_2 and user_3.
(c) In general, should I only have one admin account on my system?
(d) Does an administrator account have the same privileges as root after,
(su "ing" subsequent to logging, into user_2 and user_3)
sudo
and such, there is only one true administrator account on every linux machine:root
. – confetti Aug 12 '18 at 07:50