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I'm still somewhat new to Linux/Ubuntu and I greatly appreciate the help. If you can explain how to do things, it'd be great. I'm very computer literate, but I still don't understand a lot about Linux.

I've read the other questions pertaining to this subject matter, but most of them are from an upgrade to 16.04. I've tried all the "ctrl+alt+f#" at login and it doesn't work, so I can't access the shell or terminal from the login screen unless I'm missing something or just doing it wrong. I can access the guest account, but I don't know how to get admin or root access.

I know people aren't fond of repeat questions, but I don't everything that I've tried by reading the other similar questions either doesn't work or there's no detailed explanation on how to do things or make the fix.

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  • Welcome to Superuser. Please take the tour at superuser.com/Tour to get the most out of this site. Have you tried to use the sudo command in guest mode? You can use it to change your other login name's password by using sudo passwd myloginname
    – SDsolar
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 4:24
  • It says that I don't have permission. I even tried recovery mode, but it keeps saying incorrect log in. I just want to backup my media files at this point, but can't copy or access the home folder due to having no permissions.
    – New2Ubuntu1604
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 5:08

1 Answer 1

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One thing you can do is boot with the Ubuntu Install disk.

Then select "Try Ubuntu"

That will not ask you for your password, and you can boot right up.

Open up a terminal window in there, then type in the following command:

sudo fdisk -l

and figure out what device is your primary drive. It will most likely be /dev/sda

At that point you have a lot of options. First would be to mount your primary drive at /mnt:

sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt

and verify that you can see all your directories show up under /mnt - start by looking in /mnt/home to find your username. In there you will see the Desktop, Audio & Video directories, etc.

Plug in a Passport drive and use File Manager to copy the files out to it.

Then you can reinstall Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and copy those files back in after the system is back up and running.

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  • Whenever I try to copy my home folder it says "This location could not be displayed." You do not have the permissions necessary to view the contents of "username".
    – New2Ubuntu1604
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 11:02
  • You're welcome. All I ask is an upvote.
    – SDsolar
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 22:12
  • OK, Let's take this a step at a time. 1) Did you boot into "Try Ubuntu"? 2) Press the Windows key and type terminal to open a terminal? 3) type sudo fdisl -l and identify your main drive (probably /dev/sda - it will show partitions)? 4) mount /dev/sda /mnt 5) ls /mnt/home to find your username?
    – SDsolar
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 22:15

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