I've saved the page and put it in Dropbox.

Reading the whole article - it included wireless. I don't have wifi on the
desktop, but use a cable. We do have WPA wifi. Could Ubuntu have decided that we
need the wireless password anyway?

The funny thing about all this, is I have never saved passwords in a program. I
just copy and paste from a text file which is NOT named passwords. I delete all
history and cookies when I exit a browser. Most of the software on the XP drive
is installed via serial number. No passwords. Ubuntu never asks on a software
install.

I was really pleased when I installed 10.04. Everything just worked.
This included internet, Wacom tablet, mouse, printers (slow from internet is
still driving me nuts)even the old serial port Epson scanner.

I only tried recovery mode after I deleted some sound program using Synaptic,
and the microphone went with it. That's when the password nonsense in recovery
started. I never needed a password to get into the BIOS when the machine was
2K/XP. I had to boot through the BIOS anyway. Safe mode just used F8. So where
Ubuntu got the wrong password from is a real puzzle. The one I did put in works
just fine for any other command.

There is one other possibility - could Ubuntu be picking up computer NAME rather
than password? I think I had a rather profane network name for the computer at
one time.