newreel

Hello,

I just installed Ubuntu for the first time on an older homemade PC.

I finally got it to install, but now it's asking for a username and password. Like I said, this is a brand new install, and I definitely haven't already chosen one.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

tomiro

Did you select a root password during the installation?

If so, try logging in with the username of "root" (without the quote marks) and the password you selected.

After you get logged in you may need to add a user.

If you have any problems post pack with a little more information:
1. what version of Ubuntu?
2. Was it installed from a downloaded ISO image, one of the canonical "free" discs, or is it a custom or official Canonical disc purchased through On-Disk.com or one of the official Ubuntu vendors?
2b. Did you check the media using the integrity check? (in the initial boot menu)

newreel

Hi,

I didn't select anything during the installation. It began and completed the entire install by itself.

I'm not even sure the version of Ubuntu - because I can't get past the logon screen. I downloaded and ISO image and burned the boot disk myself.

sbobillierc

When installing K/Ubuntu (since version 5.10 Breezy) the installation asks for the name you want to use to log-in into the system and asks you for a password. The name is always lowercase. As you, the first time I instaleld Ubuntu the system asked me for the username and password and despite I'm sure I typed them the right way it always said "Log-in failed" so I had to re-install the system.

If you can not log-in reinstall your system and pay close atention to the installation, also I recomend you to type the username and the password with lowercase, boot the system and then use the passwd command to change the password to a more secure one (if you want to).

root account is not enabled in ubuntu systems you can not log with that account eighter by the GUI or the console (I do not remember the explanation for this but that is the way it is) To use the root account there's a way to give it a password but I'm not sure how to do it at the moment and I think you need to unlock the account first.

tomiro

Oh yea, good catch sbobillierc. I do remember installing 7.04 on my son's desktop box and typing his own password to get into the administrative functions.

Might it be a really old version you've installed? The latest is 7.10 (it goes by year/month...in this case 2007.October).

cmnorton

The installer of Ubuntu gives a name and password. That name is the first in /etc/sudoers. So, if user fred installed Ubuntu, when fred (logged in) wants to do something requiring root privilege, fred would prefix the command with sudo.

If you want to add more users to /etc/sudoers, enter sudo visudo, enter your changes, and exit according to the menu.

Being very used to Red Hat and Fedora, I found this annoying at first, but have adapted to it.

ncsu1983

*edited by moderator*

Magnets

Thanks ncsu1983, just the information I was looking for.

But, since it is this easy, why does UBUNTU demand a username / password at all?

Perhaps we will never know.

K-B

Magnets, it's for personal security I suppose, so other's can't easily log onto your account.

Thread closed. Discussion of password resetting is not allowed under forum rules.