Linux Format forums

Re: Password and printer problems

wyliecoyoteuk — Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:32 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:32 pm

Think of it as an example of the basic differences between Linux and Windows.
Windows will let anyone mess with your stuff, Linux expects you to act responsibly.
A password is the minimum you should protect your PC with:)

That basic protection is part of the reason why it can actually be quite difficult to catch a virus on Linux.

Re: Password and printer problems

towy71 — Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:54 pm

Author: towy71

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:54 pm

tonyfromardleigh wrote:

willingly offered the option with no warning of the dire consequences.

I don't think Ubuntu offered the option; you were the one that removed the password weren't you?

As the old saying goes: the guy representing himself in court has a fool for a client

Re: Password and printer problems

tonyfromardleigh — Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:56 pm

Author: tonyfromardleigh

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:56 pm

Thanks guys. A case of all that ends well...
I didn't realise that no password would cause such problems and Ubuntu willingly offered the option with no warning of the dire consequences.

Re: Password and printer problems

nelz — Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:51 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:51 pm

Setting up a user with no password is a bad idea, and sudo won't allow such a user to perform administrative tasks. If you don't want to type in a password when you login, set up auto-login for the desktop. Then you'll only need your password for adminstrative tasks.

It's a bit late now, but you didn't need to reinstall to fix this, you can rest the password from a live CD. Mount your Ubuntu partition, say at /mnt/ubuntu, and run

Code:

passwd --root /mnt/ubuntu yourusername

Re: Password and printer problems

wyliecoyoteuk — Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:16 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:16 pm

the printer probably failed because the Linux printing system expects an authenticated user (empty password is a nono)

Re: Password and printer problems

tonyfromardleigh — Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:56 pm

Author: tonyfromardleigh

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:56 pm

The password work round didn't work! Having looked around the internet it seems that Ubuntu locks the root. When I tried to login as root I was prompted for a password... I wouldn't let me use sudo at the command prompt either.

I have reinstalled Ubuntu and it now works fine. Although I haven't done anything different the printer now works

I now have 2 copies of Ubuntu on my hard drive, one of which is very limited. I suppose I ought to delete it...

Re: Password and printer problems

wyliecoyoteuk — Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:58 am

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:58 am

This may help:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword

If you are a dual booter, this tool may come in handy in the future

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/

Password and printer problems

tonyfromardleigh — Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:52 am

Author: tonyfromardleigh

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:52 am

I am new to linux having just installed Ubuntu 11.10 on my PC which also has Vista as a dual boot. I have 2 overlapping problems. When I installed Ubuntu I provided a password for my user - the only user for this OS. I decided I didn't need a password and removed it. Now when asked to authenticate actions I can't. It won't work whether I put my password in or just press enter. Means I can't change anything

I have a fairly standard Canon printer (Pixma ip4200). Ubuntu has detected my printer and correctly identified it but won't print anything. The printer dialog box shows the printer as "paused". I can't unlock the dialog box because of the password problem above.

I suspect I will need to go into root or the command line to fix this neither of which I have done. Don't know what the root password is...