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I just bought an Ubuntu running tower at a garage sale, and I thought it would be interesting to learn how it works. Unfortunately the people left an account on the device, but there are no files or anything on the drive. As they enabled automatic login I'm able to acces things like the terminal, but am unable to run anything as I don't know the password. If someone could tell me how to format it and completely start over it would be appreciated

Josh8338
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  • First, you don't need the password to run user programs like a web browser, media player, etc. Second, you can reset the password for administrative tasks. Lastly, here is how to install Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/install-ubuntu-desktop. Best of luck, and should you have more specific question, do not hesitate to ask. – mikewhatever May 30 '15 at 19:22
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    just reinstall ubuntu =) – Panther May 30 '15 at 19:37
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    Just download the version you want to install from the ubuntu website and reinstall it from scratch. It will automatically format the drive, and you will be able to create a new account with a known password. – Sfrow May 30 '15 at 19:39
  • You don't to be running an untrusted / unknown configuration of Ubuntu. Follow the link provided, and re-install .. – david6 May 30 '15 at 23:07

2 Answers2

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To create a clean installation, you will need an USB, Ubuntu or Ubuntu based ISO, and your current PC. This can be also done in windows too.

Linux Way: Download the I so and go into a partition manager and make sure to format the USB to fat32. This is need to prep our installation media. Next, download the iso from Ubuntu or another based distribution. In Ubuntu there is a startup live CD/USB creator installed by default. Go into that program and locate the iso. Now select your USB and let the program extract the files. Once done; restart and it should automatically boot. If it didn't, on the bios splash screen, it should be f12 to go into other devices and select the USB/CD. You can then follow the setup and choose to wipe the entire drive.

Windows way: Everything is same except you need a program called Linux Live USB creator. Download it and select ISO and USB (make sure its formatted to FAT32) It will do the same thing and just reboot to boot into your Live USB.

Hope this helps and if you have any questions leave a comment below :)

s3gm3ntationfault
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My suggestion is, if you want to see how it works, first try:

Switch on your computer.

Press and hold the Shift key, which will bring up the Grub menu.

Select the line which starts with ---Advanced options.

Select the line ending with --- recovery mode.

Press Return and your machine will begin the boot process.

Your PC should display a menu with a number of options.

Select the option --- Drop to root shell prompt.

In the terminal run:

mount -o remount,rw /
mount --all
ls /home

You should then see a list of the users on your Ubuntu installation.

To reset the password, run:

passwd {username}

You'll then be prompted for a new password.

When you type the password you will get no visual response acknowledging your typing.

Your password is still being accepted.

Just type the password and hit Enter when you're done.

You'll be prompted to retype the password.

Do so and hit Enter again.

Type exit to return to the recovery menu.

After you get back to the recovery menu, select resume normal boot, and use Ubuntu as you normally would, and you could see how it works, only this time you actually know the password.

Source

Community
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kyodake
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