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I'm trying to reset the password to the base administrative/main account on my Ubuntu system. In the recovery shell, I will type passwd <user> and it will give me an error output saying that user <user> does not exist.

I have verified that the user does indeed exist in the system via

cat /etc/passwd | grep USERNAME

What could the issue be that it cannot find the user in question?

chaskes
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pingOfDoom
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  • Are you literally typing passwd <user>? – TheOdd Oct 13 '16 at 16:51
  • Yes @OwenHines literally that, and its sudo passwd variation – pingOfDoom Oct 13 '16 at 16:57
  • Is the user that you're changing the password for's name actually <user>? – TheOdd Oct 13 '16 at 16:58
  • Also its not a duplicate @Elder Geek, since I'm following the instructions there in explained, but I can't perform the actual reset – pingOfDoom Oct 13 '16 at 16:59
  • @OwenHines no the username is not actually – pingOfDoom Oct 13 '16 at 16:59
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    CAT ABUSE !!!!- http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21664624-Do-You-Abuse-the-cat - post the output of grep USERNAME /etc/password cat | grep is poor form, lol. Also output ls /home and the exact command you ran and error message. Simply stating it is not working is not helping us to solve your problem. – Panther Oct 13 '16 at 17:05
  • Please also include the prompt in your [edit] as it will abundantly clear to us whether you did indeed drop to a root shell as instructed in the duplicate question – Elder Geek Oct 13 '16 at 17:31

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