How to Change Physics Department Passwords

On a Mac, Linux computer (or Windows with Kerberos installed):

Open a terminal and use the ‘kpasswd’ command:
Note: The first prompt is for your current password. Note also that no characters will appear while you are typing.

kpasswd youraccount@PHYSICS.WISC.EDU

On a Windows computer (and a Mac or Linux computer without Kerberos):

You can change your password by using the kpasswd command on the Department Linux computers.  To do so, you will need to connect to login.physics.wisc.edu via ssh, a tool for remote command-line access.  On a Windows computer, you can use the built-in ssh command in the Command utility.  On a Mac, you can use ssh from the Terminal app found in Applications/Utilities.

In Windows, press Windows+R and enter the following command, replacing YOUR_ACCOUNT with the name of your account:

ssh youraccount@login.physics.wisc.edu

You will likely be presented with the message, “The authenticity of host ‘login.physics.wisc.edu’ can’t be established.” Enter ‘yes’ in response to, “Are you sure you want to continue connecting?”

Enter your current password when prompted.

You should then see a login banner similar to the following:

######################################################################
	Welcome to login01.physics.wisc.edu
	CentOS 7.9.2009 (Core)

	3.85 GiB RAM
	1x QEMU Virtual CPU version 2.5+, 1 threads
	
	kernel 5.4.203-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64
######################################################################

Enter the following command:

kpasswd

You will be prompted for the current password and then a new password. As you type the passwords, nothing is echoed on the screen. Once finished, you can log out using the command ‘logout’.

Other University Accounts