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I have lost or forgotten my authentication password to my Ubuntu 12.04 installed PC. I have followed the sudo passwd root command and punched in the new password. It gives me a message Authentication Token Malfunction errorand the password is not changed. How do I go about changing the password? Also, I would like to format this entirely and install Ubuntu 14.04 or at least upgarde from the 12.04 version to 14.04. How can I do this. Kindly help.

Vinoth.

Mudit Kapil
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Vinoth R
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1 Answers1

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If you only need to recover your files you can download Ubuntu and make a bootable Flash Drive. Warning, this may damage your computer but that's very rare!!!

Connect your Flash Drive and restart your computer then press F2 or DEL (Delete) (based on your computer) very quickly to open the BIOS menu.

Then select the BOOT tab.

Move your Flash Drive (Removable Device or some other name associated with your Flash Drive) by pressing + or other key which you can find by reading the right side or down.

Then save settings and exit by pressing F10.

After restarting you might need to set your language. After setting your language click the Try Ubuntu Without Installing. This may take a while to boot, just relax until you see the desktop.

Then create a new folder in the Flash Drive and just copy your files to the Flash Drive (use another one if the first one is full) Once you copy all your files your going to need to restart your computer and press Install Ubuntu

Then enter your location data and everything else. After everything is installed and you got to your desktop restart your computer and unplug the Flash Drive(s). Make sure to change your Boot device priority to your Hard Drive (HDD)!!!

If you need full information on how to do these things you can check out these: (sorry but I can only upload two links so I uploaded all the links to Pastebin) http://pastebin.com/p3bDAKKK

  • Thank you for your information. I restored the PC to factory setting and got 12.04. I then upgraded to 14.04. Now it is not accepting my password. I tried the mount command too.. I am unable to move forward. Kindly assist. – Vinoth R Apr 09 '16 at 16:40
  • If you don't need any of your personal files you can just do a fresh install of Ubuntu (I posted how to do that, it's in the link above). Optional: Reset your BIOS to factory default and set the date after (be careful, if you don't know what your doing then don't reset the BIOS). Please upvote my answer if it helped. –  Apr 10 '16 at 17:39