Password not working

[Swamp Rat]

My wife has her own computer, which has until recently allowed her to do her email and browsing, with some word processing. Nothing else. Lately, her computer does not let her log onto the computer. When she correctly enters her password, the screen goes temporarily black, then returns to her desktop image and the little password entry window, just as it was before.

Since she is barely computer literate, I performed the "Resetting your Password" in Installation guide. Got the same result. My only guess about an incorrect entry is ro splash quiet $vt_handoff replaced with rw init=/bin/bash with that space after ro. Since both commands are on separate lines, I assumed that I needed to add that space there. Did I do that correctly?

Pressed F10 to reboot to command prompt, then typed passwd (her name). Then I had her enter her password twice, then typed in "sync" then hit Enter, then "reboot -f" All without the quote signs, of course. When the computer rebooted, it was back to the original problem.

If anyone sees anything wrong in my process, please let me know. Otherwise, i will have to do a fresh install and hope for the best.

[stevef]

Unless you get an error message actually saying the password is incorrect, it may not be a password problem.  It may be there is a problem starting the GUI up.  If this is the case, then resetting the password is not what is needed.

To test this when you get to the GUI log on don't use it but press the three keys 'Ctrl' 'Alt' 'F3' at the same time.

This should give a non GUI login.  Enter the usual username (will be echoed) and the password (won't be echoed).

If the login credentials work you will be shown some information and get a terminal prompt.  This will test your name/password without involving the GUI and if ok more diagnostics can be tried.  Typing

Code:

poweroff

followed by return should shut the machine down.

If the credentials don't work, then the system will say 'Login incorrect' and allow you to try again.  When you've tried every possible combination, pressing the power button should shut the machine down.  If this is the case, then you need to reset the password or re-install.

[Swamp Rat]

Thanks, [member=9039]stevef[/member], for the suggestion. I followed your advice, and the problem continues, so I suspect you are correct in that the problem is NOT with the password.

I decided to solve it by doing a re-install, and the problem ceased. She's able to use her original password again and do whatever she chose to do prior to the problem, so all is well again.

If I can, I will mark this thread as Solved.