Comments on: How To Remove Ubuntu’s Password Keyring

By: sykologic

sykologic — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:59:29 +0000

Upon login it didn’t ask for the wireless password again. I think this is because in the settings for the wireless network, I set make available for all users. I am running 10.04 alpha 2. Thanks a lot though. I was in the exact same scenario.

By: doskyis

doskyis — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:07:34 +0000

Thank you so much for the info. That problem had been driving me crazy and I’m so glad to finally have it fixed.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:20:17 +0000

Dave,

Thank you!!!

Thats it, after all the bollocks on all the forums and this is all I wanted as did so many others.
You Sir are a genius

By: scott

scott — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:39:49 +0000

dave,

many thanks for the post.

+1 for john’s post:
“In 9.1 you can merely edit the connection setting to allow everyone access to the network. Then when Ubuntu starts you are not asked for your password”

i could see wanting to not use the password manager, but if the only problem is the network connection, then the connection setting would seem to be easier/safer solution. works great for acer aspire netbook with ubuntu 9.1.

By: Gordon Barclay

Gordon Barclay — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:00:08 +0000

Dave, you are a gem. I’ve trawled ubuntu forums and not come up with anything. I understand some peoples concern about security but it does’nt apply to me. I just cannot see the concern if you are set up with a log in pass, are you not already compromised if someone accesses your wireless network?Anyway thanks so much.
Karmic on AAO 110.

By: FabioC

FabioC — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:17:48 +0000

Hello. On 9.10 Netbook Remix it works fine. Thanks a lot.

By: p3ngu1n

p3ngu1n — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:38:22 +0000

You rock. It turns out I shouldn’t have entered any password in the first place. Now, if only I could get rid of this keychain thing for the mac computers at my school… I don’t have high hopes for that, as I’m not an admin.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:40:15 +0000

This helped me with a frustrating problem I was having saving parameters for the VPN client configuration. Thanks a million.

By: Virgil Stokes

Virgil Stokes — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:14:30 +0000

This worked Dave! Maybe not the best solution; but, the only reasonable one that I have found yet!

Thanks,
–V

By: Johan

Johan — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:41:05 +0000

Thanks, worked perfectly on Karmic, no more irritating requests.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:23:25 +0000

If you wanna be cautious, you can always rename the old keyring file to login.keyring_FOOOO — same effect as deleting it but you could recover it later if u needed….. I’m a great fan of renaming rather than deleting key systems files

By: Dalu Rinne

Dalu Rinne — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:25:50 +0000

Thanks for taking the trouble to put this up. Really useful

By: AddeB

AddeB — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:14:48 +0000

Thx So Much!!!
I’ve had so many problems with this!

By: Wathonian

Wathonian — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:37:16 +0000

Dave,

I have tried your cure but it does not seem to work. Are things different with Ubuntu 9.10 netbook remix?

What is happening is that after automatic logon I am asked for the Password or Encryption Keys’ for my wireless network. This is despite the fact that under ‘Keyrings’ I have the two folders ‘Default’ – containing the one word ‘Default’ – and ‘Default.keyring’ containing my network password/encryption key. I often have to renter this before my network is connected, making me suspect that the folder ‘default.keyring’ is not being read. Perhaps the ‘default’ folder should be blank?

This is driving me mad and I hope you can help!

By: glyn

glyn — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:34:05 +0000

Thanks for this solution, this problem has been driving me potty for days.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:54:38 +0000

Dave,
Many thanks!

By: Sorry but...

Sorry but... — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:10:48 +0000

this is not really a good solution. As warned, it leaves all of your passwords available in one plaintext file! This is totally insecure, and John’s solution (a few posts up from mine) solves the problem while only opening up the network to other users of that computer…surely a better solution?

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:01:41 +0000

Dude, your the best. Thanks!

By: Spikes Joubert

Spikes Joubert — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:37:40 +0000

Hi Dave,
Thanks for this tip! It saved me from reloading Ubuntu on the Netbook.

By: adam

adam — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:17:31 +0000

To not delete all the passwords (Ubuntu 9.x): Open Applications > Accessories > Passwords and Encryption Keys. Right click on the Passwords once inside the application, and select ‘Change Password’. Enter the old password and leave the new one blank. Presto!

By: boo

boo — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:19:52 +0000

but then again it will automatically forget password somehow..
I don’t know why..

By: YAY!

YAY! — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:49:03 +0000

Cheeeeeers, Master!
Awesome tip! Loving Ubuntu.

By: Marjorie Fowler

Marjorie Fowler — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:02:32 +0000

Thanks so much for this, Dave. You’re my hero for the day.

By: Mario

Mario — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:43:46 +0000

Thank you very munch. It was so annoying to have to retype this password all the time

By: Glenn

Glenn — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:54:26 +0000

Excellent post. Thanks.

By: John

John — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:37:43 +0000

In 9.1 you can merely edit the connection setting to allow everyone access to the network. Then when Ubuntu starts you are not asked for your password

By: kevin rogers

kevin rogers — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:32:08 +0000

i followed the step to remove, worked fine, how ever on inspection of the file ,found the key NOT to be in plain test format.

[Portion removed by by David Steinlage]

so is it still encrypted?

David Steinlage: NO, as stated in the post, the keys will not be encrypted. They might LOOK encrpyted, but that’s actually the “real” key your computer transmits to your wireless router when it authenticates itself. For example, when you create a WEP key, you usually start off with a passphrase but it’s converted into a hexidecimal string, so it may not look like plain text in it’s raw format, but should still be treated as such. Good thing I edited your comment before posting it or I would have given your wireless rouuter’s password away on the Internet.

By: Josip

Josip — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:32:45 +0000

Thanks a lot for this. My server now works great.

By: Kri Kri

Kri Kri — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:34:49 +0000

big up! thank you very much!

By: Rod Gudgion

Rod Gudgion — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:53:57 +0000

Thanks very much indeed.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:28:48 +0000

Finally!! After an hour and a half and trying 5 or so different solutions this is the one that actually works, and dead simple too! Many Thanks!

By: Waisybabu

Waisybabu — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:53:51 +0000

Works like a charm! Thank you random internet guy!

By: pcdoc

pcdoc — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:33:42 +0000

Many Thanks.
Worked brilliantly on Ubuntu Netbook Remix installation on an Acer Aspire One.
Cheers

By: david_steinlage

david_steinlage — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:51:23 +0000

Well I guess I stand corrected about this probably working in Ubuntu Netbook Remix edition….

Anyone know of a possible work-around?

By: B Bell

B Bell — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:12:51 +0000

I did this and now it won’t save my wireless WEP password. So i have to enter the password to connect to the wireless network. Anyone else having this problem? I’m using Ubuntu Netbook Remix

By: Lucias Clay

Lucias Clay — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:37:43 +0000

You sir are a genius. Been trying to get around that for ages.

By: david_steinlage

david_steinlage — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:32:09 +0000

@Calvin: I’ve not used the Ubuntu Remix edition but there is a very good chance it works the exact same way. Give it a try and just make backups of any files you might modify/delete in case something goes wrong.

By: Henrique Maia

Henrique Maia — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:41:19 +0000

Thanks for this how to. I was getting annoyed with having to type my password every login just to use rhythmbox and last.fm/libre.fm scrobbling feature. You saved me from that

By: Calvin

Calvin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:04:28 +0000

Can I do the same with my Ubuntu remix version?

By: andy mejias

andy mejias — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:03:31 +0000

Thanks alot, I am new to Linux and this is a great help; at least I have one of a thousand questions answered. Thanks again!

By: Jack

Jack — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:09:54 +0000

Thanks, Dave, for this how-to. I actually needed this information to correct an error that stemmed from updating from a prior version of Ubuntu. When I first installed a very old version of Ubuntu on this computer, I had created a 7-character password for my login account.

Recently, I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on a different computer and tried to use the same 7-character password. To my surprise, Ubuntu stopped me from using such a short password, and insisted I use a longer one!

I thought nothing of it, until I tried upgrading Ubuntu on this computer to version 9.04. After the upgrade (which proceeded without a hitch), I could no longer log into my account. I then realized that Ubuntu wasn’t accepting my previously generated 7-character password! I used some information found on-line to remove my old password, and replace it with a longer one. Now, I could log in to Ubuntu on this machine, but was prompted for the keyring password (which happened to match my “old”, shorter login password).

Using the information in this how-to, I was able to remove the login.keyring file. After rebooting, I was asked to supply the WPA pass phrase (just as your article stated), but after doing so, the keyring manager DID NOT APPEAR!!

I checked my hidden folder, and found that a new login.keyring file had been created. However, the next time I rebooted, my wireless network connected automatically, AND I WAS NOT PROMPTED FOR A KEYRING PASSWORD!!!

As far as I’m concerned, that’s the best of both worlds. My passwords are still encrypted, but (by default?) the keyring password seems to have been set to match my login password.

Again, many thanks for your help.

By: eirred

eirred — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:16:38 +0000

thanx a lot!!!!!!!!!!!great job!!!!!!!

By: david_steinlage

david_steinlage — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:51:40 +0000

@DaveM: Thanks, will do.

@Mark: You might search Ubuntu Brainstorm to see if anyone has suggested this yet, and if not, throw a well written idea in that you think would get a lot of votes. I wish it were easier than this, too… but it’s just the way things go when it comes to “wishlist” fixes.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 07:39:47 +0000

Thanks for this! Was driving me mad on my eee PC.

This information should be shown at create keyring time. “Note: Creating a blank password keyring will blah blah”

By: DaveM

DaveM — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:46:20 +0000

Dave, you may want to clarify that what is being done here is not removing the keyring, just its master password. After following your instructions, users will find a new, clear-text keyring named “default.keyring” stored in their .gnome2 folder.

By: RobHK

RobHK — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:40:08 +0000

Great. I Googled for this but the suggestions on the other sites didn’t work.

By: headcleft

headcleft — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:30:27 +0000

Cheers, annoying problem solved… much appreciated

By: KeithA

KeithA — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:44:40 +0000

Obviously I had the same issues. Thanks for this fix.

Just to cross reference, this post explains the problem in great detail.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/ubunti_wi_fi_password_problems?page=1

By: BurnGates

BurnGates — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:28:06 +0000

Kudos dude. That’s been pissing me off for days.

By: david_steinlage

david_steinlage — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:33:35 +0000

Tommy, you crack me up.

By: chaosman

chaosman — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:57:47 +0000

Thanks a lot. Now I can control my server completely via Vino.

By: Pastor JW

Pastor JW — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:36:26 +0000

Good how-to! I also hate the silliness of it. In Kubuntu I removed kwallet for the same reason however, you have to disable it before you can remove it. Other than waste the user’s time I have never found a good reason for making your own computer almost impossible for you to use!

By: Tommy

Tommy — Sun, 24 May 2009 13:04:53 +0000

bob said
> You use Ubuntu and have a girlfriend?

The earliest versions of Ubuntu came with girlfriends included. Well, pictures of women some found to be too racy.

The developers quickly realized Ubuntu men and women had women and men in their lives who did NOT appreciate the photos, so Ubuntu chose to remove them. http://lwn.net/Articles/165751/

If you made that comment about Slackware, on the other hand…

By: piltdown

piltdown — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:48:53 +0000

This keyring prompt is (now was) SO annoying. Many thanks!!

By: bob

bob — Fri, 08 May 2009 07:25:06 +0000

You use Ubuntu and have a girlfriend?

By: chasysom

chasysom — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:36:57 +0000

ehh.. amazing ))

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:01:40 +0000

Thanks Dave,
Worked great on 9.04, I’m new to ubuntu, just installed it for the first time last week when Jaunty was released. Typing in the password every time I rebooted was one of the few things I did not like. This post is definitely going to help me stay.

By: John

John — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:46:41 +0000

Excellent, I have been fighting with this for days, it has made my life so much easier.

By: Bhushan

Bhushan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:48:34 +0000

Thanks for the post. It works great

By: Christophe

Christophe — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:00:57 +0000

Thanks, nice and simple solution. Your solution stays the same in Ubuntu 9.04.
Btw first in Google search on “ubuntu wireless keyring password”.

By: Devlin

Devlin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:52:31 +0000

A HUGE thank you to you Dave!
I was seriously considering dumping Ubuntu (it is still a possiblity) the idiotic changes they have made are really annoying. Next fix is to re-enable ctrl-alt-backspace… Their instructions were of no help. I am still stumped at how they can say they disabled it due to people “accidentally” hitting this combinations…HOW do you accidentally hit these three keys?!?!?!

By: Jaak

Jaak — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:46:01 +0000

amazing! I was not easy to find this solution…

By: Charles

Charles — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:56:03 +0000

My hat’s off to you, sir. It worked.
Here’s an FYI for those using Intrepid 64-bit.
The WLAN login will be a little different.
After you’ve entered your wireless network password, a dialog will pop up telling you that the keyring wants to store your password. Your choices will be “Deny”, “Allow Once”, or “Always Allow”.
I selected “Always Allow” and the next time I booted up, the system didn’t even ask for the network pass. It logged right in with no questions at all.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:05:47 +0000

Thanks a bunch… Great post…

By: Ramachandran

Ramachandran — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:23:11 +0000

Dear sir

Thank you for solution. It worked for me. Keep it up. Thanks once again. Ramachandran

By: henriquemaia

henriquemaia — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:29:39 +0000

Thanks for posting this advice. This was getting on my nerves and each time I typed the password I would think that it was better for me to find some howto on how to bypass this. I googled a bit and found yours, which worked like a charm. Thanks a lot!

By: Mo

Mo — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:05:38 +0000

Thanks for that. This feature seems pointless because if you are worried about multiple users you would disable autologin of the OS.

By: Kent

Kent — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:24:03 +0000

Thanks Dave,
My computer is also behind locked doors, so nice to unlock this for good.