username and password change

[Jude DaShiell]

I had that problem too, but solved it differently.  Before you do this, 
take the computer off the internet temporarily.  If you use braille and 
are the only one around to do so, it'll be relatively safe to write the 
information down and save it in a couple different places.  I have the 
type of distro and kernel version as a header line; and then have a line 
with r: followed by a password and another line with u: followed by a user 
password.  You just need to remember your user name that way.  Along with 
that I have the date last changed.  That way you can monitor for how long 
any given password stays in use.  Once the computer is off the net, as 
root do a command like passwd username where username is the name of your 
user account.  On debian anyway I don't even get asked for the old 
password just to type a new password and to confirm it.  The whole job is 
done provided you don't loose your password log and put that in a safe 
enough place.  You might also want to download makepass and use that to 
generate some strong passwords for you if you run out of ideas.