desktop user password issues. can't do squat in desktop. (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have the one default user "deck" in desktop mode. It looks like it's set to a standard account type.

I can't add a user or change this without a pop up asking "Authentication is required to change user data" and wanting "authenticating as root" password.

Leaving it blank fails. Putting in my sudo password that I have set and at this point double checked multiple times from within Konsole fails as well. I'll go in Konsole and type "passwd" then I'll type the current password and it will say "changing password for deck" and the change works fine. I'll close Konsole, but still have the same issue outside of konsole. Entering a password fails when trying to modify user or update anything.

I can't update anything on desktop now, and I can't figure out what the heck the issue with it is.

Does anyone have a clue? Thanks

Edit\update: Tried a million things. Couldn't get back root access. Made a steam OS boot image on a micro SD card and used it in the steam deck to re-install steam OS but keep my downloads\user files etc. This worked and got back "deck" as admin account as it should be. All better.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

If you know the root password, then you can switch to the account called root using the su root command.

In Linux there is always a user called root, which is the only account allowed to perform most system management tasks. The sudo command just executes a commend as root. Most of the time you don't need to actually sign into the root account, just use sudo, but you can actually sign into it in the terminal as it is a real bona fide user account.

The sudoers file is located at /etc/sudoers. Do keep in mind that this file should not be edited directly. You can use the cat command which will print the content of a file to the terminal. So try cat /etc/sudoers.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I'm unable to su root or access the sudoers file. I'm going to try using a steam os image file on a flash drive to reinstall my steam deck os.

this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025

18 points (100.0% liked)

Steam Deck

18233 readers

145 users here now

A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.

Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.

As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title

The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.

Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.

These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.

Rules:

Follow the rules of Sopuli
Posts must be related to the Steam Deck in an obvious way.
No piracy, there are other communities for that.
Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
Have fun.

Link to our Matrix Space

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]