What did he do to me?

[Grocker76]

I asked a question on a linux forum & got a response for my problem. I followed the advice of someone in the form, He or she gave me something to type in the command prompt & all this code started flashing down my screen for about 15 sec, It was a lot of code then the system rebooted and now I'm locked out of my laptop with a new log in apparently. That seemed to be an awful lot of code just to change the log in password. Is it worth taking it to someone to hack into it so I can use the laptop again or should I just trash it? Thanks for any response to this question.

 

[Brickwizard]

which distribution were you using

 

[Condobloke]

have tried logging in simply by hitting Enter ?

 

[Condobloke]

It must be hugely important to you to log in again.......you have simply dumped a question here with insufficient info to make any sense of it and then gone offline.

(sarcasm)

 

[ron.alan]

If I were you, I'd reinstall the OS from scratch. But then, I am a bit of the paranoid type.

And take this as a lesson. Don't run random codes from strangers unless you're sure of what they do.

 

[f33dm3bits]

He or she gave me something to type in the command prompt & all this code started flashing down my screen for about 15 sec,

What did you run that this person told you to run?

 

[Grocker76]

which distribution were you using

I think I was using Ubuntu Studio

 

[Brickwizard]

I will assume its the sudo [admin] password that has been changed turn off the machine, now switch on whilst holding down Shift key until the GRUB menu appears , then release, then press e to edit start up, look for line that starts linux /boot/vmlinuz... and add to the end of it init=/bin/bash [leave one space between the end of the current line and the addition] this should open the password manager then
# passwd
Enter new sudo password
Retype new sudo password and enter
you should get
passwd: password updated successfully
continue boot enter password if requested

 

[bob466]

Welcome to the Forum.

To change your know password is a simple task but if someone told you to run a command that locked you out...it becomes more difficult.

If you don't have much experience with Linux...it might be better to re-install.

 

[Condobloke]

It may be of some help for the future if we were to made aware of the forums name

if you would rather not, I understand

 

[KGIII]

I'll also add that you can just use a live USB instance to recover any data -- unless your storage drive was encrypted. Even then, you can usually unlock it, unless that was the password that was changed.

 

[wendy-lebaron]

were you told to use "set" terminal command?

all right, didn't read everything on this topic. but "set" entered by itself. does generate a lot of "functions" and that kind of stuff. there are a few operations. done by applications that could cause a relog.

must paste text first. into a text editor. acquired from internet. then examine it for suspicious lines. such as this:
$ sudo shutdown -h now

(without dollar sign. that is just simulating the "dollar" prompt on "bash" terminal.)

even though that would require the user. to enter his/her password. if he/she didn't do so already.

 

[Grocker76]

were you told to use "set" terminal command?

all right, didn't read everything on this topic. but "set" entered by itself. does generate a lot of "functions" and that kind of stuff. there are a few operations. done by applications that could cause a relog.

must paste text first. into a text editor. acquired from internet. then examine it for suspicious lines. such as this:
$ sudo shutdown -h now

(without dollar sign. that is just simulating the "dollar" prompt on "bash" terminal.)

even though that would require the user. to enter his/her password. if he/she didn't do so already.

I was able to get into the laptop by switching to another desktop, However, whatever that guy did was quite a bit. I tried to get into the boot menu to replace the OS but somehow he locked me out of the boot menu also, so installing another OS s going nowhere. I'm at my wits end.

 

[Condobloke]

So, to be clear.

Did you install the original ubuntu studio on this pc, yourself?....or did someone do it for you ?

 

[Grocker76]

I installed the OS myself

 

[Grocker76]

It seems if I fix one thing, something else goes wrong. The screen freezes if I move the cursor after getting the volume icon turned on,

 

[Grocker76]

I was able to get into the laptop by switching to another desktop, However, whatever that guy did was quite a bit. I tried to get into the boot menu to replace the OS but somehow he locked me out of the boot menu also, so installing another OS s going nowhere. I'm at my wits end.

@wendy-lebaron I don't remember the exact command he gave, could of been SUDO but the code that flashed up my screen lasted about 5 sec then it rebooted and I was locked out for my password didn't work,

 

[kc1di]

Hello @Grocker76
Welcome to the Linux.org forum, enjoy!
It would be a real help in trying to help you if you provied more info on the Distro your using? The machine it's being used on and as much info about the machine as possible. Other wise folks will be just shootting in the dark and may hit something worth wihile or may not. -- A complete reinstall of the system would be my first option. Good luck hope you get it figured out.

 

[f33dm3bits]

don't remember the exact command he gave, could of been SUDO but the code that flashed up my screen lasted about 5 sec then it rebooted and I was locked out for my password didn't work,

I asked a question on a linux forum & got a response for my problem. I followed the advice of someone in the form, He or she gave me something to type in the command prompt & all this code started flashing down my screen for about 15 sec,

You asked it on a forum, so you can look up the topic to see what that user asked you to run and then share it here?

 

[Condobloke]

@Grocker76, What did you say the brand and model of your laptop is ?