Refurbished laptop

Question

Purchased a refurbished laptop; love it, but the previous owner has an administrative password installed. How can I overwrite their password with my own to allow the latest Ubuntu upgrade and program installations?

Since there is no telling if the previous owner put some sort of trojan or something on the system, you need to format and reinstall. — psusi, Dec 11 '13 at 16:10
Is the password locking the UEFI/BIOS system (early at boot) or locking Ubuntu (when you have an Ubuntu login screen? The solution is different for the two cases. — sudodus, Apr 29 '22 at 12:38

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

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Check out this link How do I reset a lost administrative password? I think this will help you reset the password.

Good luck!

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Community

1

answered Dec 08 '13 at 01:40

Lance Hietpas

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

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The Fact is Recovering the Password and all is not that easy as shown in the link suggested by Lance Hietpas.

Do a backup if items and re-install it , or ask the old owner for password.

Remember a fresh new installation is always better then any other option.

But if still you want to give a try clcik here..

hope it helped you.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

Community

1

answered Dec 08 '13 at 01:51

Sukupa91

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 29 '22 at 12:22

Does your refurbished laptop has Ubuntu already installed in it? If yes then: 1.Go to Recovery mode by pressing the left shift key (left hand) 2.Drop to root shell prompt

#root@machine$: mount -o rw,remount /
#adduser username(<- your name) sudo adm
or 
#useradd username sudo adm

shutdown now

Once you have entered the OS, your username should appear to the log in screen. Then you can now delete the previous user.

Refurbished laptop

3 Answers3