I fired up my Ubuntu VM on VirtualBox after several weeks of non-usage. I have an administrator account and a non-administrator account. I have stored the administrator password in a text file on the host OS (Windows 10). I did not store the password for the non-administrator account because it was "so easy to remember" (so I thought at the time) and because if I ever did forget it, I could always log into the administrator account to reset the password for the non-administrator account.
Shockingly, I forgot the non-administrator account password. I failed three times to log in. This seemed to lock me out in the sense that I am no longer presented with a password prompt when I select the non-administrator account. I then resorted to my clever plan of logging into the administrator account to reset the password for the non-administrator account. Unfortunately, I don't get a password prompt for that either.
Is it normal for Ubuntu to lock out all accounts because of 3 failed logins for one account?
That seems odd, but my context for thinking this is ye olde SUN SPARC terminals for undergraduates of yesterdecade. They ran X-Windows over a LAN. Just because one student failed to login, it doesn't mean that the next student to use the terminal should be locked out. Times have changed, of course.
I am still not getting password prompts for administrator and non-administrator accounts after 20 minutes, even though I have not made another attempt to log in.
P.S. The problem went away after rebooting Ubuntu. But it still seems odd. Any explanation would be appreciated.
