Password lost

Good morning fellow Zoriners
Yes, I have lost my password. Lost? Not quite sure, since I do not even remember setting one. It reads crazy, I know, but it seems to me as if Zorin created a password of its own and is now asking me to guess it . But I am no psychic. At this point, I fear I will soon have to delete the partition and do a fresh install of Windows7. I have tried all the passwords I am currently using on different websites. I have unsuccessfully tried up to 100 times resetting it. LEt me just copy paste what I posted to "Ask-Ubuntu" on 24th January :

24th Jan 2018_ 8:10 pm_ I have just tried this method: 1_Reboot your system 2- Highlight your image and press E to edit 3- Find the line with "linux" and append rw init =/bin/bash at the end of that line. 4-Press Ctrl X to boot Type in passwd Set your passwd and restart your PC.
Now here are a few lines on the screen which caught my attention: "bash: cannot set terminal process group (-1) inappropriate ioctl for d"
"bash: no job control in this shell"
"Kernel panic! _ not synching: attempted to kill init!"

A zillion thanks to anybody who comes up with a magic trick to retrieve this blinking password.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekysqyf5QtE

this one shows 3 ways?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLwqGce6AGo

Thank you very much Swarfendor, but none of these methods works for me. I do not have live a LiveCD. I have tried, and tried and tied, and I am still left with an OS I cannot update or upgrade. I cannot download any additional software. I am trying to have the patience of an angel, but I think I should be frothing at the mouth, with fumes coming out of my ears. I have been trying to solve this for two days! Now I wish I knew to which partition Zorin is allocated to completely erase it and pack it in! If I go down to the root shell, I am asked for this blinking password again! I am on a choo choo train! I think I am going to malke misself a cup of coffee and have a ciggie. Coffe and ciggie never ask for passwords.

So, did you install with autologin? Big mistake friend. The first method has always worked for me. Is your machine dual boot or Zorin only?

Hello again Swarfendor
Yes, yes, I am on dual boot. It's a second hand PC, works perfectly and Windows 7 was already installed on it. When I first tried to install Zorin using a DVD, the install failed. I think I used something like "Bootl bare metal".I believe I had burned it to a DVD which I left inside the drive. I had previously downloaded a Zorin iso to a USB stick. And when I rebooted the PC, Whoosh, the Zorin install was displayed on the screen, and everything went to fast. Autologin? what is it? And if I did install with autologin, how do I get out of this mire?

What happens if I try to reboot from USB and try to reinstall ZORIN right from the start? Or is there somewhere a repair tool on the iso file?

Well, since I cannot what I want with Zorin, I have just installed 'Dreamlinux' on volume E. A bit complicated procedure, but I think I have at long last managed to install a linux distro which I can put to good use.
Grub is OK. If I choose Windows 7 I get this on the display:
-Windows 7
-Zorin
-NeoGrub bootloader
-NeoSmart Iso Entry
for advanced options press F8 (pour les options avancées appuyez sur la touche F8)

Oh Noooooo! Drat and tiple drat X 1000!!! Again! Dreamlinux authentication fails! I have set a password I can type either on a French or an American keyboard (layout is different) and the authentication failed! I have tried editing but again it says this: "Target filesystem does not have /bin/bash/! I feel I am under some evil spell! Should I bring my PC to the priest and ask him to exorcise my PC?

Tools
Windows memory diagnostics.

Hi, Could you upload a screenshot of your partitions? Boot into Windows, then right click computer icon on desktop or on right of start menu, and select Manage. Go to Disk Management and show your partitions so I can understand your hard drive layout a bit more please. Thanks.

I was shocked to hear you installed Dreamlinux as it is no longer an active project. Did you download it from here?

https://archiveos.org/linux/

Hello again Swarfendor. Yes, I have just saved a screenshot. I am sending it right now. SPEEDY GONZ is a USB stick. My book is an external hard disk which chiefly contains video files_ I never used it to install any OS_

OK, Partition E - Delete that and create an Extended Partition.

Next boot from the Zorin Media into Live mode - try without installing. Explore things in live mode before you go any further and that it is picking up network connections etc.

Once you are happy with how it is performing, start the installer from the Desktop shortcut - don't select any updates during installation process. When it comes to choice, choose the 'Something else' option. Then:

1. Create a 512 Mb '/boot' partition at the start of the extended partition created, format it to Ext4.
2. Create a 30720 Mib '/' (root system) partition, formatted to Ext4.
3. At the END of the extended partition, create a 'swap area' equal to the amount of RAM (Memory) the machine has.
4. Whatever is left between '/' and 'swap area' create '/home' partition for all your Documents, Media etc.

Below the Partition table you will see an option where to place GRUB - put this in the /boot partition.

Reboot into Windows and install EasyBCD from NeoSmart Technologies. How to use, watch Matthew Moore's video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlTgaWs9BD0

or mine here:

https://vimeo.com/110085401

Hello again Swarfendor. It just does not work. I am giving up. I did all that you have suggested. This morning I deleted partition E, created an extended partition using MiniTool partition wizard, copied the Zorin iso file to H (USB stick), rebooted the PC. But it refuses to load Zorin and asks me to unplug the USB stick. UNetbootin cannot be of any help since it does not offer Zorin distribution. I am thinking about installing another Linux distro. LinuxMint perhaps. Anyway, thanks a lot for all help and trouble. Have a nice Monday.
Ooops! I was wrong! UnetBootin actually CAN load Zorin! Hope is perhaps not completely lost after all!

!!! Install did not complete and stopped! All I got was a big blue Z on the screen.
I'm thinking, is it possible to insall a Zorin 32 bits on a 64 bits machine?

Guess what? I have successfully installed Zorin lite 6 32 bits. I have set a password, took the precaution of first taking it down on a piece of paper. Asked (during the install) to passwd prompt when opening a session. And again, authentication failed. I am thinking about suicide....
Or can the install CD help me get around the problem or fix it?
Answer? : NO! it can't! I feel I am the only Zoriner on this earth to whom such a misadventure has happenned! Boohwoohoohoo!

Hi, you should be made aware that Zorin 6 Lite is no longer supported, based on Lubuntu 12.04 its support ended in 2015. I have successfully installed Zorin 9 alongside Windows 10 using the same method I have outlined to you - perhaps there is something amiss in the Partition table of the drive that is causing issues. I would give Zorin 12 Lite a try, or failing that AntiX-17, or Makulu Flash, or the resurrected Freespire, or Q4OS.

The only other thing I can think of is that your Recovery Partition that restores the Notebook to Factory defaults could be causing issues, other than that I can't say.

Good afternoon Swarfendor. This is nothing less than maddenning.I have uninstalled Zorin, put Ubuntu in place, but I am still stuck with this authentication problem. I thought "E" was the partition allocated to Ubuntu (or any of the Linux distros I have tried). Now I am starting to wonder if both Windows and Linux systems share the same partition_ which to me seem very strange_ I have deleted E, wiped it, formatted it. I have extended C, and yet Ubuntu is still present. I can log on to it, but again, I still cannot download anything from the Software center, nor change the password. I am posting another screenshot of my disks. At some point, you said there could be something wrong with my partitions. How should I know? Is there something special showing on the screenshot that indicates it?
Thanks

Well there are two things to be aware of. My Book is Seagate no? and Seagate Drives are not GNU/Linux friendly (more specifically, the external drives). 2nd, you have 5 'principale' partitions - this is a 'no-no' (non-non) as the maximum number of Primary Partitions on any system, no matter how many hdd's are present, is 4. That is why you should always have an Extended Partition present on a system as that then becomes one Primary Partition that allows you to have as many partitions as you want, so creating a 'principale' in an extended partition is not going to have the same issues as a 'principale' outside of it.

Hello again Swarfendor
Yes, "My book" is an external hard disk, Western Digital. But for years, things worked just fine. The "partition principale" (main partition) which is highlighted is not the allocated one for Ubuntu. Now, you are perfectly right. I failed to notice there were five partitions on the PC's hard disk. I have to fix that. Why can't I have an external disk when logged on to Ubuntu or Zorin? This disk is there only to save documents, music and videos. I am not even trying to use any of its partition as a swap partition.
Errm, what if I turn off the exerternal hard drive during the install, complete the install and then turn it on again?

Here is another screenshot showing the superfluous partitions have been deleted. In fact, I deleted them last night, tried to install Zorin using Linux Pendrive, but the install failed and after just a few seconds I got a black screen.

Tried to install Antix a few minutes ago using UNetbootin returned this after reboot:
SYSLINUX 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD Copyright (c) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et
gfx boot. C32 not a COM32R image
boot:

Hi, I am not a big fan of unetbootin - I used it once to try and create a live Zorin or other distro, can't remember - it went all through the rigmarole of creating an image of said system and then after 20 minutes of whirring away reported that what I was attempting to do was not currently supported! My favourite creation tool is MultiSystem - but you need a working GNU/Linux install to run it or use Live DVD from their official site. In the meantime I found this:

https://codeyarns.com/tag/unetbootin/

one more youtube vid

Code:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnxj7osSjNU

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