No login possible after sudo in Mint

If you have ruled out caps lock as the culprit, then things certainly are more complicated. We could try to rule out issues with the login manager, and instead attempt a login from the console. So you can try to press Ctrl+Alt+F2 which should give you the console where you can type in your username and then your password.

If you can remember what you did with sudo, that could also help understand if it was the possible cause to the issue.
 
My "shorthand" name is given on the command line, I type in my password--it isn't accepted. I'm typing in the right password and it worked a few days ago. Argh, I think I'm in trouble here. It seems to want a different password? But there isn't one ttbmk.
 
George, let me understand you. You can login to the machine when it boots, but you can't su to root with your known good password in a console window?

Please paste the output of:

Code:
groups cloasters

or substitute your username for 'cloasters' of course

It should show you something like:

Code:
thunderrd@Q6600:~$ groups thunderrd
adm wheel audio cdrom video cdrw usb users portage cron wireshark games realtime samba vboxusers storage
 
Very shortly after installing Mint the machine asked for no password during boot. I didn't like it but have no idea how to make it ask for my one and only known password to be able to boot. At this point I'm afraid to find out what happens if I try to lock the screen. Thank you very much for your fast response, ThunderRd!
 
OK. I get "groups my first name-second name adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare." Then the prompt returns as "firstname-secondname contraction of first and second name ~$"

Thank you very much for your help, ThunderRd!
 
George, open a terminal and type
Code:
su -
then 'enter'. [that's a hyphen]

Then, see if you can get a root prompt there by typing your password.

Can you not copy/paste the contents of your terminals?

You can redact the sensitive information if you want. It should look something like this:
Code:
thunderrd@Q6600:~$ su -
Password:***************
root@Q6600: ~#

Also, please show me what is failing. What command are you issuing after the 'sudo' command? 'sudo' is not a standalone command. It needs to be followed by a command issued with proper syntax for that command.

For example, you type 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -s' and the system asks for your password. You don't type 'sudo' and enter. That is for 'su' as I have shown you above. 'su' will show me if you can get elevated privileges in the terminal itself, without a command being issued.

I'll check, but I also believe you have to have your user in the 'wheel' group to use elevated privs, and I don't see you there with the groups command. Let's see if you have an existing 'wheel' group. Please type
Code:
groups
and show me the output?
 
Hmm, looks like Debiankinder don't install the wheel group by default, so I guess that's not your problem. You shouldn't need it if sudo is working properly, anyhow. The wheel group is a vestigal UNIX thing and its presence seems to depend on the distro in use. Your output shows that you ARE in the sudo group, so that should be OK.

So back to the other questions:

1. What, *EXACTLY*, are you typing when you use 'sudo'? What command are you following it with?

2. Can you raise a root prompt in a terminal by using 'su -' and typing the password?
 
Maybe we could show him how to create another (admin) account and use that account to change the password for his main account?
 
Gotta find the problem first. He knows it worked before, and I have never seen a password mysteriously become unusable. He's apparently in the sudo group, and I expect the su command to fail because there is no wheel group. He can't create an account with admin powers unless he's root, and apparently he can't get there. I *suspect* he should try re-booting, but I'm doing some research before I tell him to try that.

We also should take a look at /etc/sudoers and see if there is a problem there, but unfortunately 'visudo' is needed to edit that, and it MUST be run as root, and he can't get there, so again, it's a bad circle.

Maybe there is a keyring problem of some sort.

We also completely derailed that thread, so that is why I've moved it here.
 
Agreed, we need to find out exactly what he's typing and trying to sudo, first.
 
Good point, I forgot super user needs to password-in just to create an account.
Is there a way to reset passwords without "sudo"?
This is a common problem in Windows when someone forgets their password. If they don't know the Administrator password then the only way onto their computer is using a rescue flash drive where I can reset the admin password.
Not sure how to do it in Linux.
If this happened to me... I would re-install Linux... sadly :(
If anything its good experience having to re-install.

He can't even "passwd root" because it requires "sudo"
 
I'm thinking a keyring problem, maybe a master pw has been set on top of the regular one.
 
I think that is SOP in all Debian-type distros. Maybe one of the boys running Mint can check?

Bedtime for me, I'll check back in the morning.
 
Yup, /etc/passwd is there, opened it with nano and it lists all of my accounts.
 
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