How do I find out my ‘root’ password?
Just curious as I found this Open Terminal as root - Amahi Wiki and wondered how to do it?
I tried the one I enter when typing
sudo
but it’s NOT the same password.
Just noticed, I was entering it wrong, I was typing
su
and NOT
su ~
where I get
pooky2483@pooky2483-ubuntu12:~$ su ~
Unknown id: /home/pooky2483
pooky2483@pooky2483-ubuntu12:~$
So, new problem, what’s wrong with it now?
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 ”
If you MUST have a TRUE root prompt (denoted by a # prompt instead of a $ prompt), run:
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:
exit
sudo su
will get you a root prompt where your “Home” directory is still /home/
again:
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.
.
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’
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.
.