Forgot my password

Beginners
#1

I recently took the initiative to leave big tech after events of the past couple years.

I bought a Dell XPS 13 2021 Developer Edition with Linux Ubuntu this past January.

Linux has been much more difficult to use than I expected. I haven’t used my computer in a while, and now I’ve forgotten my password, and cannot reset it. I feel like I threw money down the toilet!

I’m writing in the hopes that someone may be able to help. All the online forums I’ve researched do not give me the correct indications to reset my password. When I reboot my computer holding down the ESC button, I get a GNU GRUB version 2.04 menu, which is different to what is displayed in all the forums regarding forgotten passwords. (see the photo of my screen). Holding down the shift button doesn’t do anything on my computer.

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Where do I go from here? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

#2

Have you looked at this page?

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#3

Hey @chamas and welcome to the forums!
Yes, when you hold down the ESC key, it drops you into the Grub console. You only need to tap the button once.

The moment you get the Grub Menu, you can then go to the Advanced Options and hit Enter. Select one of the Recovery options and it will bring you to a window with a variety of options that you can navigate with your arrow keys and select with the Enter key.

Select the Drop to root terminal and hit Enter. Once in terminal, execute:

passwd $(ls /home)

This will read the folder within the Home directory and pull your username. Then, it will ask you to input a new password, twice. Once done, execute:

reboot

And you’ll be good to go!

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