[SOLVED] Whats the 'root' password

[pooky2483]

How do I find out my 'root' password?

Just curious as I found this http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Open_Terminal_as_root and wondered how to do it?

I tried the one I enter when typing

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sudo

but it's NOT the same password.

[pooky2483]

Just noticed, I was entering it wrong, I was typing

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su

and NOT

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su ~

where I get
pooky2483@pooky2483-ubuntu12:~$ su ~
Unknown id: /home/pooky2483
pooky2483@pooky2483-ubuntu12:~$

So, new problem, what’s wrong with it now?

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

What are you trying to do ?

The "root" account on Ubuntu based systems is not activated and available .. DO NOT activate it unless you know what youre doing.

It's normally a good idea to steer clear of a root terminal and run commands that need root permissions with "sudo <command>"

If you MUST have a TRUE root prompt (denoted by a # prompt instead of a $ prompt), run:

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sudo -i

enter YOUR password .. you will now be at a # prompt with elevated privileges, and your "Home" directory will be /root

To go back to a normal $ prompt run:

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exit

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sudo su

will get you a root prompt where your "Home" directory is still /home/<username>

again:

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exit

will get you back to a normal $ prompt

BE CAREFUL whilst using "sudo su" .. anything written to YOUR "Home" directory will be written as root, with root as the owner .. which runs the risk of making your account unbootable.

MUCH safer to not use a root prompt at all, and just use "sudo" to run commands that need elevated privileges .. or "gksudo" if it's a GUI application.

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[pooky2483]

I was just curious as to why what I mentioned in my first post wouldn’t work.
I know how dangerous it would be tinkering 'under the hood'

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Because there's no "real" root account in Ubuntu .. so you cannot su (switch user) to root .. the root account is locked and has an encrypted password.

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