Linux Mint 19 password shows "*" in terminal

John D K -

There is a new change in Linux Mint 19 about password feedback which will provide feedback for the entered password length as shown on the image:

Video showing the solution:

Linux Mint 19 password shows "*" in terminal

Don't show '*' for the password

Don't worry your system is not corrupted or broken this is a new change in Linux Mint 19 as you can read in this blog post(comment section):

How to upgrade to Linux Mint 19.1

In order to restore the previous behavior you can remove a file:

/etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback

The removing of the file is simple with command rm:

sudo rm /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback

I recommend you to make a copy of this file if you want to restore the behavior for showing password. And this is the recommended way when you are deleting files from your system. Back up can be done by:

sudo cp /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback ~/Downloads/

And then you can delete the file. Later if you want to restore it you can run:

sudo cp ~/Downloads/0pwfeedback /etc/sudoers.d/

Restore the '*' behavior

The file content is simple one so you can simply recreate the file with this content:

Defaults pwfeedback

Example command would be:

sudo touch /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback
echo "Defaults pwfeedback" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback

Note:

If you try to use:

echo "Defaults pwfeedback" >> /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback

you will get an error like:

echo "Defaults pwfeedback" >> /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback
bash: /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback: Permission denied

Note: If you try to rename the old file with:

sudo mv /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback_bak

This will not work or at least in my tests it didn't make any difference.

Upgrade Linux Mint 19 to 19.1

The upgrade from Linux Mint 19 to version 19.1 is possible since the very end of the previous year. Some of the new features:

  • New panel layout
  • Nemo
  • Update Manager
  • Input lag was reduced on NVIDIA
  • Artwork improvements

You can check more here: New features in Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon

How to migrate to Linux Mint 19 to 19.1:

How to upgrade to Linux Mint 19.1