Solved Getting Started I Hope.

[wizardfromoz]

Prehaps one person could take over and run the OP through it

What I can do is generate a video that I can use to walk the OP though changing his password, and include a short, numbered blow-by-blow textually for the steps to follow.

It would basically cover what Bob suggested at #54 above, that is

...going to the Grub Menu...Mint...Advanced Options...Recovery Mode...Root etc, but I think this would be too hard for a beginner.

@wm460 if you are interested in this, all I need is to know whether you have a Grub Menu at startup.

It would look something like this

FOR THE BENEFIT OF NON-AUSTRALIAN HELPERS

The OP lives in Tennant Creek (pop. 3,000) in Northern Territory, a little north of Alice Springs (pop. 25,000) in our Dead Centre. If he refers to Alice or The Alice he is referring to that major centre.

When I say "a little north" - he is 500 km (312.5 miles) from there, that is a 5 hour drive each way, so he cannot easily slip in to the computer store.

@wm460 I understand that you work, I am a half hour ahead of you - I can have this ready in 24 hours or less, or we can do it over the weekend, let me know what suits.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[bob466]

What I can do is generate a video that I can use to walk the OP though changing his password, and include a short, numbered blow-by-blow textually for the steps to follow.

It would basically cover what Bob suggested at #54 above, that is



@wm460 if you are interested in this, all I need is to know whether you have a Grub Menu at startup.

It would look something like this

FOR THE BENEFIT OF NON-AUSTRALIAN HELPERS

The OP lives in Tennant Creek (pop. 3,000) in Northern Territory, a little north of Alice Springs (pop. 25,000) in our Dead Centre. If he refers to Alice or The Alice he is referring to that major centre.

When I say "a little north" - he is 500 km (312.5 miles) from there, that is a 5 hour drive each way, so he cannot easily slip in to the computer store.

@wm460 I understand that you work, I am a half hour ahead of you - I can have this ready in 24 hours or less, or we can do it over the weekend, let me know what suits.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

Now I know where woop woop is.

 

[bob466]

I found a video to change your Password from the Grub menu...it's for Ubuntu but in Mint it's done the same way.

 

[wizardfromoz]

That's a good find, Bob, and may save me reinventing the wheel with another vid.

Two points with it that I will qualify:

1. You don't need to press Shift-Escape to get the Grub Menu if you already have one (and I am guessing that the OP does have one and is using Windows to connect with us, but he can confirm that
2. The command he issues

mount -n -o remount,rw /

is likely unnecessary, I did not need it for either of my Virtual Machine (VirtualBox) nor my real installed Mint.

But if he needs them, then by all means.

Cheers

Wiz

 

[wm460]

Thanks for explaining where I live Chris.
I tried restarting the computer like in Bobs video, after I typed in my password in first screen hold down shift- escape keys it opens up in screen in 2nd photo.

I only have Linux on my desktop.
When I post photos I use my iPhone.

The command in point number 2, I put that in Terminal and get this.3rd photo

 

[wizardfromoz]

I understand, ta for the pictures.

The video is not telling you to go as far as your login screen. It is telling you to get to a Grub Menu, such as I showed at #61 above.

It appears the techie in Alice, has simply gone with a purely standard install for Mint being the only system on the machine (understandable) which hides the Grub Menu by default.

That being the case, you do need to do what the Indian fellow recommended in his vid.

Start your computer, and as soon as you get perhaps a logo for your computer (I get Dell), begin to tap the relevant keys.

You may not know if your computer is BIOS/MBR or UEFI/GPT, so if it is the first, it is tapping the Shift key (could be left or right Shift).

If it is UEFI, you tap the Escape key several times.

You'll know when you get there when you see a screen like #61 but yours will only contain the two lines for Linux Mint.

It is the Advanced Options one you want and then follow on.

Let us know how you fare.

Chris

 

[wm460]

I finally got it, successful till I got to the New passed then it froze and won’t move.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Do you mean in the black and white display off the Drop to Root Shell page, or did you get as far as the graphical login window and it froze there?

 

[wm460]

I got to 4.59 in the video when it said New Password: _ that hyphen just flashes.

 

[wizardfromoz]

So is it the video which is freezing, is that watching it on your iPhone?

 

[wizardfromoz]

When the video author is at the point for new password, he types it in and then it moves to the next line.

The entering of the password is hidden, for security reasons, the insert point/cursor does not move. In Mint, it may show a series of asterisks.

 

[wizardfromoz]

I am going to have to make tracks to get tea going but will be back on deck tomorrow.

 

[wm460]

Hyphen on my monitor of my desktop

 

[Brickwizard]

at this point you should be able to type in the new password [it wont show] and press enter

 

[bob466]

I haven't tried the method shown in the video but on my Tower's key Board to bring up the Grub Menu...while Booting I have to start tapping the right hand Shift Key...then go from there...good luck.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Agreed (with Brian)

That is not a hyphen, but rather an underscore/underline aka insertion point. It is waiting for input from you.

Sometimes they blink 6 - 10 times, then stop.

Type your new password and press Enter, it will ask you to repeat and then do so.

It should then say password updated successfully.

Then type in and enter

reboot

When the machine reboots it should progress to the graphical login screen, when you type and enter that password, and then it should boot to the desktop.

 

[wm460]

I had another couple goes this afternoon, did exactly what the bloke in the video said and all I succeeded in doing is to change my login password, buggered if I know what I am doing wrong?

 

[wm460]

When I log on if I hover the cursor on the icon circled there is a drop down menu, what are they for?

 

[wizardfromoz]

With the first picture - so did you type in your password and press Enter, and if so, what happened?

With the second - that is the default, leave it as is.

 

[wm460]

I had to use the password that I put in for the root password, then it open up the normal desktop screen.