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You can't retrieve a forgotten or lost password, but you can set a new one ("change" the old password). It's not simple, because of security concerns. But if you follow the instructions below carefully, it shouldn't be hard to do.
Note: don't use this method when you've encrypted your home directory or your entire system! Because then it will remain inaccessible. This method is only meant for the normal situation, in which nothing has been encrypted.
1. First you do a one-time hack of the boot menu of Grub.
If you never get to see the Grub menu, you can make the Grub menu visible when you turn on your computer, by hitting the Esc key just once, immediately after the BIOS screen disappears.
However, hitting the Esc key just once at the exact right moment can be difficult. In that case, hit the Esc key repeatedly, immediately after the BIOS screen disappears. That increases your chances of success, but it'll give you a Grub command prompt without the menu.
No worries, however: at the Grub prompt, type normal and hit Enter. Then immediately start tapping the Esc key again repeatedly, until the menu is displayed after all. This time, don't worry about hitting Esc too many times: tapping Esc more than once at this point, won't drop you to the Grub command prompt anymore.
2. Normally the boot line of Linux Mint is highlighted; if not, make it so.
Press the e key to edit this boot line.
3. Now look for the following line in the text that you get to see:
linux /boot/vmlinuz-(...much text omitted for the sake of readability...) ro (...some text omitted...)
Explanation: ro stands for read-only. You need to make that read-write, in a simple terminal environment, which is what you're going to do next:
Move the cursor to the end of that line (use the arrow keys for that) and delete:
ro (and all text that follows it in that line)
Replace the deleted text by this:
rw init=/bin/bash
The line should therefore become like this:
linux /boot/vmlinuz-(...much text omitted for the sake of readability...) rw init=/bin/bash
4. Press F10 or use the key combination 'Ctrl x'. With that, you'll boot your computer with the altered boot line.
5. Now wait a while: Linux Mint will boot without a graphical user interface. You'll end up with a "bare" terminal with a lot of text, of which the bottom line looks like this:
root@(none) / #
6. Now check the existing user accounts on the system. Type:
ls /home
(the first letter is a small L)
Press Enter. You'll see a list of the user accounts. Note that there are no capital letters in their names.
7. Then type:
passwd your_own_username (for example: passwd john)
Press Enter.
Now you should be able to enter your new password ("Enter new UNIX password").
Note (1): don't use spaces or accents in your new password and don't use special characters that might vary with different keyboard layouts. Keep it simple and foolproof: use only letters and figures.
Note (2): when you type your new password, it remains invisible. Not even asterisks will show, which is normal. In this window it's being called a Unix password: Linux's roots are becoming visible!
Press Enter.
When prompted, type your new password again.
Press Enter again.
8. Press the key combination Ctrl Alt Delete in order to reboot.
You're done! Now you should be able to log in with your new password.
Want more tips?
Do you want more tips and tweaks? There's a lot more of them on this website!
For example:
Speed up your Linux Mint!
Clean your Linux Mint safely
Avoid 10 fatal mistakes
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