Linux Question

rodmkr

rodmkr

Temecula California
OK linux users here is a question for you!
Please remember I am able to tie my shoes but little else.
About 6 months ago I loaded Linux Mint on an older computer.
Have long since forgotten what the pass word was.
Had time today to play with it and finally got it to work.
Need to download several updates and video and sound apps.

How do I find out what the password was or change it to a new one?
Any help appreciated but make it simple for me please.

Jim
 
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PopcornSutton

New Member
Go to forums.linuxmint.com and join if you haven't. Then ask them. Don't be afraid to ask for a detailed step by step, many there assume you are a long time Linux user. I use Mint every day and would never go back to Win or Apple. If that does resolve it, then Bud's suggestion is next.

Same thing happened to me when I had Ububtu. Never was successful retrieving or changing the password. It has Mint on it now
 
Matt_G

Matt_G

Curmudgeon in training
BudHyett is right.
You will have to reinstall Mint.
You can't change the password without knowing the current password.
And you will not be able "find out" what it was.
 
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popper

Well-Known Member
Re-install. You need your user password to do any updates (root can be used but that is dangerous ). If set up for auto login and the computer goes to sleep you have to have user PW anyway. If you are not writing programs, Mint is fine for everyday stuff. Basically a free version of windows. Bret - the only 'tricky' part of Mint is downloading programs that are NOT in the Mint 'store' (repository). Mint 'app store' stuff downloads and installs automatically.
 
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Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
If I can get one of my older laptops working I intend to put Mint on one. My IT is super busy and that's probably who I'd have to get to help me. My understanding is it can be done off a cd or jump drive, but it seems my machine needs more memory reagrdless of what I put on there. It's all magic to me.
 
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PopcornSutton

New Member
Well not necessarily. Linux runs with much less memory than the Win/Apple machines. If you go to linuxmint.com, you can download the newest version of Mint onto a memory stick, and they have good directions on how to install it. You can plug in that stick, and wipe out any older version of mint along with any Windows you may have.
 
rodmkr

rodmkr

Temecula California
Ok I got it to run and downloaded all of the updates.
Still have a problem tho.
It always runs in fall back mode which I presume is the same
as safe mode in windows,.
Nothing I do seems to solve the problem.
Even the linux forum has no answer but I did not ask only browsed looking
for an answer tried to join but they would not accept me.
Any help appreciated.

Jim
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
PopcornSutton said:
Well not necessarily. Linux runs with much less memory than the Win/Apple machines. If you go to linuxmint.com, you can download the newest version of Mint onto a memory stick, and they have good directions on how to install it. You can plug in that stick, and wipe out any older version of mint along with any Windows you may have.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I'll look into it.
 
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popper

Well-Known Member
Use fallback Main Menu to run Synaptic and 'Completely Remove' all nvidia entries.
After a few reboots, Cinnamon runs sweet as a nut: nothing lost.
Or try AntiX, a version for old computers with low memory/disk space. https://antixlinux.com/
 
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Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
popper said:
Use fallback Main Menu to run Synaptic and 'Completely Remove' all nvidia entries.
After a few reboots, Cinnamon runs sweet as a nut: nothing lost.
Or try AntiX, a version for old computers with low memory/disk space. https://antixlinux.com/
Click to expand...
Man!, you're into this, eh? My main reason for wanting to get into it is twofold- #1, it seems anything MS is a target for hackers/virus/etc., and #2- MS and their constant "updates" to harder to use, space hogging stuff that's usually tracking and consumer spyware/shopping trend crap. Add in #3 that Zuck is not someone I want to give my money to, or Bezos for that matter as long as I mentioned shopping, and Linux seems like a great idea. With the move towards ESG scoring/tracking that Gates is fully on board with and it seems not just a great idea, but maybe necessary.
 
rodmkr

rodmkr

Temecula California
I give up!!
Have tried to load Mint 4 times and always get Fallback mode no matter what I do
so will stay with windows.
At least until I can find a distro that will work on my old computer.

Tried Lunbutu 32, Unbutu 32, Puppy 32 none of which worked on the old beast.
Windows works just fine on it so I do not think it is the computer.

Verified all disks so know disks good so as I said "uncle" "I give up".

Jim
 
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PopcornSutton

New Member
I have loaded Mint 19.3 on 3 laptops. One of them, (my wifes) had an issue. Windows had a setting in their BIOS and I cannot recall what it was, that prevented the install. I searched on my other laptop, found the issue, and fixed the setting. Once done, the Mint install went well.

Popper seems to be more familiar than me, maybe he can help. If need be, I made a post on the Mint forum of what I found and what I did, so I could probably retrieve it.
 
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popper

Well-Known Member
try sudo apt-get install -f ( you need your password). Fallback mode is like windows 'safe' mode, limited capability. Problem could be small memory or disk space, bad install or wrong drivers for your machine. My laptop is an old (>15 yrs old) toshiba, battery is on it's last leg. Another problem may be if you have dual boot with win & linux. "A Linux Mint operating system takes about 15GB and grows as you install additional software. If you can spare the size, give it 100GB." It uses lots of ram too, or will use a swap partition on the HD. Oh when installing it, do a format of the partition - do NOT just overwrite the old installation. I installed as OEM then change the user/password when it works. Yes, bios has to be set to boot from CD or USB. Fallback used gnome graphics as it works with all graphics drivers. I'm not a power linux user by any means, just tinkered with most all the distros over the years. I did get one of the early MS win 2.
Post your computer's disk/ram/video/processor specifics?
 
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KeithB

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
I've been having a ball fiddling around with Raspberry Pis. The OS is Debian Linux. The version for the RPi's is compiled for the telephone type processor chip those use. There is a version of the OS designed to run on X86 computers that has the same GUI and so forth. Anybody know how close Debian Linux is to Mint or any of the other Linux versions out there? I have a PC (Dell Optiplex 790) that started as a WIN7 machine, was upgraded to WIN10, but now it won't even install WIN10 updates. It would be a perfect machine to install Linux as an OS.

Thoughts from those who know more than me about this topic?
 
troj

troj

Tech Support
Staff member
The biggest difference you're going to find between different Linux distros is what software comes with it (i.e., which firewall it uses) "out of the box," and the administrative tools.

From a user perspective, Mint and Debian aren't going to show huge differences. From an administrative perspective, they could be significantly different. A quick Google search leads to this article, which starts to give you an idea.... https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/debian-ubuntu-linux-mint-distribution/
 
KeithB

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
Thanks Troj. I read your article and several articles it linked to. Have a much better idea now. I'm comfortable with Debian, I'll probably try that first.
 
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