37

What's the username and password for an Ubuntu Live CD image?

I ask because I've recently copied the contents of an Ubuntu based live ISO (easypeasy, the ldistro for nwtbooks) onto a hard disk drive, but the Squashfs file system is corrupt, most likely because I copied it live. :) So it's not autologging in. Is there a username/password for this?

Update: I tried username Ubuntu and a blank password, and it didn't work.

2
  • Did you try lowercase ubuntu with no password?
    – binki
    May 11, 2015 at 0:34
  • password could be: reverse
    – T.Todua
    Dec 24, 2016 at 11:25

5 Answers 5

41

Try 'ubuntu' with an empty password. If that doesn't work, you're probably best recopying the squashfs.

Note that squashfs is readonly, I assume you mean you copied the unionfs that lies on top of the squashfs and the tmpfs?

2
  • 'ubuntu' with blank password didn't work. I did a dd of the /dev/sdc (the SD card with the live 'CD' image) to /dev/sda (the harddrive). I think.... Jun 16, 2009 at 9:15
  • 3
    Also mention that other flavors may have they own username, for example in Kubuntu 15.04 the user name is 'kubuntu'.
    – Javier Mr
    Apr 30, 2015 at 21:42
8

If the username "ubuntu" with an empty password doesn't work, you may be able to add a new user to the system as follows:

  1. Boot from a live CD, and start a terminal session.
  2. Mount your hard drive partition somewhere, like /mnt (i.e. mount /dev/hda1 /mnt)
  3. chroot /mnt
  4. adduser username
  5. Reboot
1
  • Confirm works with ubuntu empty password in Xubuntu 16.04 livecd
    – swdev
    Jun 6, 2018 at 16:16
5

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I've solved this another way, so it's not a problem for me anymore. I discovered recently that it's possible to disable the password for an account. You can do this to force ssh key logins. I suspect that's what's going on here.

4

In the latest 22.04 versions of Ubuntu, the username is the same as the computer name. The password is blank. On ISOs that use the Ubiquity installer (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu MATE), simply typing the username and pressing Enter will immediately log you on. For ISOs that use the Calamares installer (Lubuntu, Ubuntu Studio), you will be asked for a password - simply press Enter when that happens and you will be logged on.

If you're wondering where the computer name is, it's immediately before the login: of the login prompt. So on Lubuntu, it says lubuntu login: The computer name (and the user name) is lubuntu.

I have tested this on every 22.04 live ISO except for Ubuntu Kylin's ISO - it works on every single one.

2
  • Surly there is some password as the Live Ubuntu Studio, when I step away for a little while, demands a password and will take none of those including blankl.
    – DonP
    Jan 30, 2023 at 2:49
  • 1
    As of 2023-11-11, typing in the computer name in to the login prompt, and pressing Enter, then logged me in. It did not prompt for a password at all. This is using a Xubuntu 22.04 USB stick (f0e78842-5fc3-4824-9f82-1d4450402c54).
    – bgoodr
    Nov 11, 2023 at 17:56
1

The default password for the user 'ubuntu' on Ubuntu is blank.

If you want to run the 'Live CD' from your hard disk then there's no need to make an image of it using dd.

You can simply copy the casper directory to your hard disk and create an entry in grub which looks like:

title    Ubuntu Live
uuid     <insert_uuid_of_partition_with_ubuntu_on>
kernel   /lucid32/vmlinuz boot=casper noprompt ignore_uuid live-media-path=lucid32 locale=en_GB.UTF-8 quiet splash --
initrd   /lucid32/initrd.lz

Here I've copied the contents of the casper directory into a directory named /lucid32 on the root of a data partition. It's the UUID of the data partition that's added to GRUB's boot option. The option 'live-media-path=' tells casper, the Ubuntu live boot software, where to look for the filesystem image so you can create the directory by whatever name you like.

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