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If your memory or mistyping leaves you without the right password to get into an account on a Linux computer, there’s no need to reformat. You’ll just need to reboot into single user mode to reset it. Here’s how to do it on a typical Ubuntu machine with the GRUB boot loader:

1. Reboot the machine.
2. Press the ESC key while GRUB is loading to enter the menu.
3. If there is a ‘recovery mode’ option, select it and press ‘b’ to boot into single user mode.
4. Otherwise, the default boot configuration should be selected. Press ‘e’ to edit it.
5. Highlight the line that begins with ‘kernel’. Press ‘e’ again to edit this line.
6. At the end of the line, add an additional parameter: ‘single’. Hit return to make the change and press ‘b’ to boot.

Change the admin password

The system should load into single user mode and you’ll be left at the command line automatically logged in as root. Type ‘passwd’ to change the root password or ‘passwd someuser’ to change the password for your “someuser” admin account.

Reboot

Once your done, give the three finger salute, or enter ‘reboot’ to restart into your machine’s normal configuration.

Note:
Some people get freaked out about having recovery mode logging you in as root.