We’ve all been there and the Ubuntu password policy is only getting worse. They really need to print their justification arguments on a roll of toilet paper and wipe their ass with them when they have a checkbox on the install to not require a password for login. There is no security argument you can make when you allow that. They also aren’t smart enough to disable said password policy when Guest Additions is installed and communicating with a host.
Most of us use Ubuntu in a VM for building or development. When we are setting up a VM to export for everyone else to import we need a basic password. Yes, we put some numbers and symbols in it but for devs in a VM that cannot receive an inbound Internet connection, we don’t need the password Nazi’s looking over our shoulder. We also don’t want to leave it empty. These things are only up for a few hours per day.
Pre Ubuntu 21.04
Open a terminal.
sudo jed /etc/pam.d/common-passwordIf you don’t have jed installed (you should!) you can use nano or any other terminal based editor.
Find this line:
Delete “obscure” so it now looks like this:
Exit and save.
Reboot.
Post Ubuntu 21.04
sudo jed /etc/pam.d/common-passwordComment out the two lines shown below and add the third.
The old standby
sudo passwd usernameStill works, but is annoying in its own right.
