> If you absolutely could not write to /etc, then you would never be able to change your password. Since we're talking about Linux, I would refrain from using

> If you absolutely could not write to /etc, then you would never be able to change your password. Since we're talking about Linux, I would refrain from using absolute clauses like "never". systemd-homed allows you to create "portable" user profiles which contain everything pertaining to a particular user, including his password. So user profiles (including your files, etc) can be moved between computers simply by rsync'ing that directory, or putting it on a network share. `homectl passwd` (which changes a portable user's password) does not require writable /etc. I think I've seen a few other solutions like that. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Systemd-homed https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Systemd-homed https://systemd.io/HOME_DIRECTORY/ https://systemd.io/HOME_DIRECTORY/