Regarding system passwords etc

[Costas100]

Regarding system passwords etc

I have been facing serious problems with my system passwords. I have a number of Mint and Ubuntu software installed in several partitions each one with its own passwords.
Unfortunately I had terrible luck with these passwords. With most of them I am rejected the first time and I am getting desperate. In total I have 4 Mint installations in one computer and 4 partitions and 3 Ubuntu on 3 partitions in another computer

I discovered the Users and Groups software and hoping to solve my problem a bit I changed my password from there. One day later even the new password was not accepted.

I do not understand what is going on, for example:
1.- what is the time limits that the new password remains active and
2.- Any tips required to prevent this large annoyance of being rejected frequently, as if I was a thief or something bad.

Under “All Applications” I discovered some interesting software such as:
a. Passwords and Encryption Keys
b. Figaro's Password Manager
c. Password Gorilla
and maybe a few more do exist but are invisible

I am not sure what to do next. I have become the joke in the Family: “Costas and his loser passwords!!!”

So as you understand I need your help desperately.

I considered reinstalling most of these annoying individual software, but I am afraid my problem will repeat it self very quickly. I checked the net and it appears that in this problem I am not alone and I have good company under Ubuntu and Mint too.

All the best to all in Mint, Ubuntu and anywhere else this situation is torturing innocent people.

With all my respect and many thank you to all hard working People.

Costas

[oldos2er]

Are you talking about login passwords? sudo passwords? On Mint and Ubuntu login and sudo passwords should be the same if your user has admin privileges.

[Costas100]

Today Thursday 18, 2013 and half of yesterday I spent all my time trying to install and reinstall two edubuntu 10.04 distros and in the process try to understand the disappearing passwords, I used Edubuntu 10.04 since I tried it before and appeared very friendly. Unfortunately at the end of this day my feelings are very sour.
I used two partitions and the same passwords for both Ubuntus. Then I added from the “Users and Groups” a password which although it was very easy to remember it was also strong enough to cover all potential abuses.

So I did spent my good 8 to 10 hours, reinstalling those two operating systems in two different computers in a partition for each one of them.
Minutes only after the addition of my password in the installation screens, I started getting these pop ups with a required password for this or that function. For example when I tried to open the gparted software, the popup asking for my password was waiting for me. I had a freshly added password in the “users and groups” page, with what I thought was a nice, easy and very secure password. The process of “what is your password” started accelerating as the installation was going on. I am really sorry that I did not stop the installation right there, I would have saved my self, a lot of time and anxiety.

It is difficult for me to understand the necessity for so many requests of my password, was it simply to prove that this will be wrong 99% of the times. Was this some kind of a game, I hope not!! There were moments that not even 3 minutes passed before the second request for the password. At times I felt like a looser, who forgot his password in a very short time and he would only type it for time to get by. It takes less than 3 minutes to type a password and probably a fraction of a minute to make you very sad because you felt like an ignorant who forgot the password in the period of less than 5 minutes. Try for a minute to get the reality of rejection, especially when this rejection, repeats it self every 5 minutes or much less.

So where do I go from here; I have spent over 10 years with Ubuntu, then moved to include Mint and a few others. I am still proud of Ubuntu and Mint and ArtistX and even Puppy. Those special people who designed these amazing systems, they did not spent their thousands of hours for the purpose of torturing their users (potentially customers).

A secure and simple password should be the first priority for a software of the magnitude of Ubuntu, Mint and even Puppy (By the way I am not sure if Puppy is using passwords, I have the hunch they don't).

But to were I should be going, now:

At least a have still 3 installed windows operating systems, that will take me through, until this password mess gets resolved. Then I can concentrate to one computer with one operating system only and make things as simple as they can be.....

In the next few days and weeks, I will try and clear my thoughts, whether I am doing any contribution to the Free Linux software, or it it is time to find something simpler and more enjoyable to spent my little time.

Linux live Cds have been an enjoyment for me and many of my Friends, there are many elements of joy and I will be always grateful to those special people who developed these special software and gave them to the world to enjoy and learn.

But there is one element that is killing me and possibly others: The never ending request for password. Yes every distro has its own password which is applied by the potential user (administrator) at the beginning of the installation, but having the request for a password, many many times from the minute the newly burned CD (DVD) appears on the screen is way too much, it is an annoyance.

This morning April 19, 2013 at 6:20 AM a new issue came up re: Passwords. It is actually good news, maybe very good.
I decided to do a search under “Ubuntu Software Centre” with simply the word “Password”. I came up with over 20 listing. I downloaded a number of password related items and listed below some general statements from the Ubuntu Software Centre:

Password Gorilla
http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/Gorilla/ Link added in Desktop
Applications/Accessories/Password Gorilla

Ked Password Manager
https://redmine.koumbit.net/projects/kedpm
Ked Password Manager Applications/Accessories/ Ked Password Manager

Figaro's Password Manager 2
http://als.regnet.cz/fpm2/
Applications/Accessories/ Figaro's Password Manager 2

Revelation Password Manager
http://oss.codepoet.no/revelation/
Applications/Accessories/Revelation Password Manager

Change Password (kdepasswd)
Graphical password changing utility
http://www.kde.org/

KeePass2
Password manager
http://keepass.info/
Applications/Accessories/Keepass2

Password
Change your login password
https://fedorahosted.org/usermode/
Applications/System Tools/Preferences/Password

YAPET
Yet Another Password Encryption Tool
http://www.guengel.ch/myapps/yapet/
Applications/Accessories/YAPET

Pasaffe
Pasaffe password manager
By far the best password manager I've tried. Simple and effective

KWalletManager
http://www.kde.org/
Applications/System Tools/KWalletManager

What is also amazing, I used the new password that I created using the “Users and Groups” and it was accepted every time. No rejections, in fact I did not need to retype the password after the previous installations.

I did not explore or used the above listed password managers, but all in all this is very good news. If anyone has his personal experience with any of the above, or other listed in the Ubuntu Software Centre, please let me know with some comments on the best.

So for now let us consider the password issue as solved.

Costas Lazarou
Toronto Canada and also from Greece, just for fun.

[Costas100]

I just with to add the link to my original thread re password problems

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2136678

Costas

[lisati]

Threads merged.

Please do not start multiple threads for the same problem, it dilutes the community's ability to help. Your first thread also had a response to which you have not yet replied.

If you have solved your problem, you can mark your thread as "solved" - for more information on how to do this, see this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2121377

[Costas100]

I guess I will mark this thread Solved, there is nothing more anyone can add to improve the Password issue. So Let us consider this issue solved, the only thing I may do in the future days is to experiment with the above software related to password, managers, wallet etc etc

Good luck to all, I will report any serious findings as soon as they become available.

Costas

[Zill]

Firstly, oldos2er asked you for clarification in post #2 above but you have not responded to this question:

Are you talking about login passwords? sudo passwords? On Mint and Ubuntu login and sudo passwords should be the same if your user has admin privileges.

...I have been facing serious problems with my system passwords. I have a number of Mint and Ubuntu software installed in several partitions each one with its own passwords.
Unfortunately I had terrible luck with these passwords. With most of them I am rejected the first time and I am getting desperate. In total I have 4 Mint installations in one computer and 4 partitions and 3 Ubuntu on 3 partitions in another computer...

One thing I would ask is if you have a separate /home/user/ directory for each of these multiple installations? Although I cannot confirm this as I do not use multiple installations on a single PC, it is possible that the different configuration files required for each distro may corrupt things if they are all in a single /home/user/ directory.

...I discovered the Users and Groups software and hoping to solve my problem a bit I changed my password from there. One day later even the new password was not accepted...

If a password is not accepted then it must be because what you have entered is wrong! Linux is case sensitive and so "THIS" is different to "This" which is different to "this". It is easy not to notice if the Caps Lock key is on or off!

...1.- what is the time limits that the new password remains active...

AIUI, there are no timelimits by default to login passwords - they remain valid indefinitely unless you change the time period. However, as a superuser, using the same password to give escalated privileges via sudo is time limited by default (somewhere around 15 minutes IIRC).

...Under “All Applications” I discovered some interesting software such as:
a. Passwords and Encryption Keys
b. Figaro's Password Manager
c. Password Gorilla...

Password managers are optional and can be used to store the different passwords required for various online services such as websites. These are not necessary to login to Ubuntu and to issue superuser commands via sudo.

You have said you have been an Ubuntu/Mint user for ten years now which leads me to ask if you have always had these problems with passwords or is it only with the later releases of Ubuntu/Mint. If so, when did these problems start. I too have been using various Linux distros for over ten years and have not had any problems whatsoever with passwords - nothing seems to have changed as far as I am concerned.