sudo passwd root -- operation not permitted

[kitepilot at kitepilot.com]

Hello Joe, please post the output of:
grep joe /etc/passwd
ls -l /home
It looks like the ownership of /home/joe doesn't match database.
ET 


joe at actionline.com writes: 

> Just installed Kubuntu 12.10 again (now on my 4th installation attempt
> today) and still can't get it to work. 
> 
> This time, I used the "manual" install procedure to install only the root
> (/) partition since I already have /home installed on /dev/sda6 with all
> my files. 
> 
> But now I cannot access that /home partition.  I'm stuck in a tmp/guest
> directory and I can neither change user to /home/joe nor can I use: 'sudo
> passwd root' because all attempts say "Operation not permitted" 
> 
> $ df
> Filesystem     1K-blocks     Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/sda1       12396968  3571428   8195796  31% /
> udev              469488        4    469484   1% /dev
> tmpfs             192240      784    191456   1% /run
> none                5120        0      5120   0% /run/lock
> none              480592       84    480508   1% /run/shm
> none              102400       12    102388   1% /run/user
> /dev/sda6      175869792 23265668 152604124  14% /home
> none              480592     9512    471080   2% /tmp/guest-3sbRVN 
> 
> I am able to view /home/joe to confirm that all my files are there by
> going to CTRL+ALT+F1 and logging in as 'joe' ... and in the F1 terminal I
> can also use 'sudu passwd root' to reset the root password.  But then when
> I go back to the KDE graphical desktop (F7) and open a terminal, I still
> cannot get into the /home directory or su to root. 
> 
> $ cat fstab shows this: 
> 
> # / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
> UUID=962718a7-f399-4173-8260-1d5c0249a8d3 /  ext4  errors=remount-ro 0   1
> # /home was on /dev/sda6 during installation
> UUID=5eb2a784-c640-4962-8a81-6f81a0ccca85 /home  ext4    defaults 0     2
> # swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
> UUID=c0c7f1be-ff0f-4f18-a86d-a98bd91d0e62 none   swap    sw    0     0 
> 
>  
> 
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