[SOLVED] XU4 on ubuntu Mate 20.04 - after reboot, password I set no longer works

[GoodEgg76]

Hi everyone.
The Odroid XU4 is my first non-Raspberry SBC and I'm having strange issues..

I installed the HARdKERNEL-provided Ubuntu Mate 20.04 from the hardkernel odroid OS images website, to a Sandisk Ultra uSD card, 64GB, brand new, and after first boot I changed the odroid user password in the shell using the passwd command, and changed it to the same pass as my desktop install of ubuntu Mate 20.04.1..

then I updated the os on the command line with sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade. this seemed to be actioned correctly and I left it running to go watch some TV for a couple of hours.
When I came back to it to sudo poweroff I found it was in the OFF state already. I restarted and tried a couple of things. The sudo password had reverted back to the default password of 'odroid', so I changed it again with passwd - entering odroid for the old pass and repeating the same pass I had used earlier. I checked that it was indeed fully updated and powered down for the night.

This morning I restarted it with the XU4 power button and after it loaded up and let me into the graphical desktop without a password, I altered the keyboard settings to a UK layout (I'm in England and like to type the pound sign as £ not # and to have the @ symbol as shift-' rather than the shift-2 as it is on the default US keyboard.

Then I tried to go about adding overscan, as it would be on a raspberry pi, but is technically actually 'underscan' - I want to see the whole screen on my old 22" HDMI TV. the tv has no useful setting to correct this overscan as it is utterly rubbish and badly designed. Something I tried (I can't remember what) required user password entry. My pass no longer works, and the old one doesn't either..

What are the reasons why a user password could become changed or corrupted, except that perhaps a remote user has hacked my odroid install already, before I've even got it set up? Has anyone else had this issue with the ubuntu mate 20.04 SD image for XU4?

I use the password all the time, normally, as much as any Linux user; so can't really do much except use the apps that are already installed, and only for user-level tasks..

Is there a way to use 'passwd' command to force-change the password without needing to enter the old one first?

[odroid]

I will try to reproduce the issue early next week since I can't access my ODROIDs at this moment.

Meanwhile, try using 'root' account with 'odroid' password.

[jensbab]

Hi i just upgraded to the Version 20.04. and same Problem.
No Password with login works on ssh. i dont have a gui installed.

i tried the combinantions:
root-odroid
odroid-odroid
.....

dont have any idea what is going wrong here.

appreciate any help
I need this machin.

thx
br
Jens

[odroid]

which version have you used?

[jensbab]

Hi, i changed all the repos in the sources to focal
then did the
apt update
apt dist-upgrade

now my kernel is:
Linux 5.4.167-240 armv7l
Version:
it says still: Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS from etc/issue

i can log in with another account to ssh

[jensbab]

i try to connect to the serial console and see what happens

[odroid]

I have no idea what causes the problem.
Could you login via serial console?

[jensbab]

Hi, found the problem.
it was the one sitting in front of the monitor.
Totally forgot tu update the boot.ini becaus i was booting from an ssd and not from the microsd card.
So i edited the boot.ini to boot from the corret partition and thats it.

Thank You