I think I accidentally locked myself out

General system Newbie
1

as the tittle says i think i accedentaly locked myself out by typing the password wrong and i have tried waiting an hour or two to try again but it still wont let me in (it just says password is incorrect and nothing like “wait x amount of minutes to try again”) and i could just reinstall but i have a few things i need from the drive so should i just wait and try again at some point or is there a way to get the stuff from the drive i am using latest version of endeavour and i am using the cinamon DE

2

If you managed to lock yourself out, you can try to login as another user (if one exists). You can also let it rest a while (and quit trying) so that the lockout will expire. Give it an hour, maybe even turn it off, so you won’t be tempted to try. Each successive failure may expand your lockout time.
You can boot single user and login as root and clear your lockout (google is still your friend, though maybe the arch wiki would be a better friend).

4

Hello and welcome to the forum :enos: :enos_flag:

This may sound obvious , but did you hit the Capslock key by accident or disabled Numlock ?

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5

could be very possible but i have checked and it dosnt seem so no /:

6

yeah im just gunna wait i think

7

Yeah I hate the lockout. I typically change the duration in PAM so that this doesn’t happen to me (or not much). I have been known to disable the feature.
Sometimes my fingers get in the wrong position and I don’t realize it till I’m locked.

8

im very new so i actualy didnt know that you could change lockout attempts and how long you are locked out but yeah especialy since my keyboard dosnt have very noticeble home key bumps lol

9

If you need the stuff on your drive urgently , you could always try a life EOS (the ISO you used to install EOS). And get access to the drive this way, and copy it.

10

Using a LiveCD

With a LiveCD a couple methods are available: change root and use the passwd command, or erase the password field entry directly editing the password file. Any Linux capable LiveCD can be used, albeit to change root it must match your installed architecture type. Here we only describe how to reset your password with chroot, since manual editing the password file is significantly more risky.

Change root

  1. Boot the LiveCD and mount the root partition of your main system.
  2. Use the passwd --root MOUNT_POINT USER_NAME command to set the new password (you will not be prompted for an old one).
  3. Unmount the root partition.
  4. Reboot, and enter your new password.
11

Here’s how to disable lock out:

12

While possible, this is overkill. You can do it by booting single user mode w/o inserting a prepared ISO image. No extra hardware required.

13

Hopefully, you’re in by now?

14

im not ):

15

ill try that :smiley:

1 Like
16

Have you made sure that Caps Lock, Num Lock or what, are not on? Anything keyboard related?

17

Tip: (and after you get through this scenario) create a second user in the admin and wheel groups. If this happens to your main account, use the second.

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