HELP Ubuntu Mate password recovery procedure

[Captain Anni Hilator]

Greetings from a Pine64 Ubuntu Mate newbie! 

I have set up Ubuntu Mate on a Pine64 2GB a month ago to "not ask password at login". The problem now is I somehow have forgotten the password for root and I cannot do updates and upgrades, installation/removal/purge of packages.

Tried some web searches for recovering the root password (pressing "shift" or "Cntrl" at bootup to access GRUB) but those procedures presented were not applicable for Pine64 Ubuntu Mate (cannot access GRUB).

If there is a better recovery procedure, I (and probably a lot of others) will be more than happy follow it so that I can recover/reset the password.

As of now I can still access/use my Ubuntu Mate as a Linux desktop, but would like to start updating it to the latest available updates/upgrades.

Many thanks!

[MarkHaysHarris777]

If there is a better recovery procedure, I (and probably a lot of others) will be more than happy follow it so that I can recover/reset the password.

Pop the SD out of the Pine board, and pop it into another gnu+linux machine;  use the second machine to edit the passwd file , sudoers file , etc;  make any changes appropriate and then put the SD card back into the Pine board; voilà !

[Captain Anni Hilator]

Thanks MarkHaysHarris777 for the FAST reply, will try it out later and give feedback.

[Captain Anni Hilator]

Hi there! I finally had access to the files (passwd, sudoers,) as stated above, however I'm stuck on what to do next, what to look for in the file (part to edit) and what to do next after that (before the "put the SD card back to the pine board, viola")

Tried deleting the encrypted entries in the shadow file, (backed it up first) but still not able to set/reset password for ubuntu and/or root after putting it back to the pine board.

[Captain Anni Hilator]

to add to that my account was disabled and I cannot enable it.

... revisited the shadow file and made "drastic" (as in not recommended) changes....

drank 2 cans of beers first

reboot....

and finally voilà !... was able to reset the password

Still my thanks to MarkHaysHarris777 and somebody called keepitsimpleengineer

[Luke]

to add to that my account was disabled and I cannot enable it.

... revisited the shadow file and made "drastic" (as in not recommended) changes....

drank 2 cans of beers first

reboot....

and finally voilà !... was able to reset the password

Still my thanks to MarkHaysHarris777 and somebody called keepitsimpleengineer

Beer = guaranteed success. The only question that remains ... what beer was it ?