Can't get into my aspire one...please HELP!!

I bought myself a 120gb aspire one just before christmas,but didn't really like the operating system.
I just bought myself a usb stick with Ubuntu 8.10 to give a try on my AAO. Everything loaded ok and I was well chuffed....now the slight problem.
The password was set to "password",so like an idiot I thought I'd change it...big mistake!!
I changed it to a 9 letter password,but later when i turned the computer back on,and it prompted me for a password...there is only space for 8 letters....so I'm stuck and I have absolutely NO idea what to do.
Please...can somebody help me...I'm desperate!!

 

DId you try entering all 9 letters and pressing Enter? Just because only 8 "letters" show doesn't mean that only 8 letters are registered.

 

Tried 8 letters,9 letters...old password,new password....I'm just completely stuffed and I've only had the bloody thing for a couple of weeks!!

 

It could be the old prob where everything is converted into uppercase. Hit capslock and try again

 

Nope....tried upper and lower...still no joy!!

 

This any use?

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-recove ... buntu.html

or

To get onto a machine using single user mode, simply reboot it. When the machine restarts, enter the GRUB menu by hitting the ESC key.

Once you’re in the GRUB menu, you’ll have a list of your latest kernels, and their recovery modes below. You’ll start off on the latest, which is what you want.

Type the ‘e’ key.

This will bring you to a sub-menu. You’ll be on the top selection which is root (some hard drive info in this space). Use the arrow keys to go down 1 selection to the kernel option. Again, hit the ‘e’ key.

Now you’ll see the command that GRUB will use to start your box. It will look something like this:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash

You’ll want to add the word ’single’ to the end so it looks like this:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash single

Now hit the enter key once. Then type ‘b’ to boot the machine.

You’ll go through what looks like the normal boot process, but find yourself suddenly staring not at a graphical user interface, but a command line. Welcome to being root. What now?

To change a user's password, type:

passwd USERNAME

Substitute the username who’s password you want to change. Then type the new password twice. When you’ve done that, type:

exit

 

I read on another forum that the password must be typed in in ALL CAPS, regardless of how it was originally set. Also, in your case, use only the *first eight characters*. That's reportedly the solution. Good luck!

 

Cheers "Stu"...
My wife just worked her way through your answer (I'm totally useless at stuff like that),and now I have access.
Can't tell you how grateful I am...THANKYOU!!

 

No probs. Glad I could help as my Linux skills aren't the best.