I failed my password attempts (5 times) a few days ago.  The account is still not allowing for a login.

 

I have attempted to remove the password from /ect/shadow but I am still getting prompted for a password, so either I didnt do it right or it didnt save. 

Login failure counters on Linux are typically managed by pam_tally or pam_tally2, and manage the failed login count outside of /etc/shadow. Both have special console commands to reset those counts.

 

That said, they're not in the Armbian images I have for either the ODroid C2 or NanoPi M4V2. Did you go out of your way to enable them?

 

If not, it's more likely that you messed up your /etc/shadow entry if you edited by hand. If it's corrupt, the system will treat that as a failed password attempt regardless of what you enter.

I didn't do anything special, but I might have seen service starting messages for them at boot (I am using the image for Helios64).

 

I made a copy of /etc/shadow before I edited it, but the result is the same.  Still says I have 5 bad password attempts, even after days of not trying to log in.

I am unable to reproduce your issue on my M4V2 via SSH.

 

Maybe provide debug output if you can (LINK), and provide additional information on how you're trying to log on?

 

Perhaps someone else can help you.

 

When that sort of problem happens to me, it is generally caused by a worn SD Card (which ack writes but do not update)  or a dirty root fs that needs fsck.