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Problems with passwd in recovery mode. Every entry has no effect, shows 'options' each time

io flag

I have forgotten my password, so I am trying to reset it in recovery mode. When I drop down to shell through the recovery mode menu, I make the system read/write:

mount -o remount,rw /

then, when I type and enter the command:

root@computer:~# passwd [User name]

Nothing happens except passwd outputting its options:

Usage: passwd [options] [LOGIN]

#list of passwd options...

There is a space in the user name, as shown. Will that have any effect on passwd's functionality?

Should I use

chmod 640 /etc/shadow

that I found here, even though I am not getting the same error?

sudo pwck showed many things (user avahi, user kernoops, etc.) all saying password change in the future. I have used the command passwd -e User name (force expire) in the past in hopes that it would prompt me to enter a new password when I rebooted but that didn't do anything again.

ls -l outputs:

total 4

drwxr-xr-x 3 root 4096 Sep 1 2021 snap

Thanks.

*@steeldriver Thanks. The 'real' user name was just the first half before the space. So in comparison to this post, it would have just been "User".

Super simple. Cheers!

hr flag
You are probably confusing your user's username *display name* (sometimes called *GECOS fullname*), like `John Smith`, with their actual UNIX username, like `jsmith` (which won't have a space)
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