Newbie question: why can't I log in as root with Fedora 10?

squall1986 · 02-24-2009, 04:37 AM

Hi, I'm very new at using Linux and I've just installed Fedora 10. I am wondering why I can't log in as root from the login screen. I can authenticate a specific action such as updating the system or whatever through the normal user, but why can't I just log in as root from the login screen to do all my updating or whatever?

gergely89 · 02-24-2009, 05:17 AM

AFAIK you can login as root. The graphical login screen does not list 'root' among the available users, but you can still type in root as the username and as a next step enter the password.

The purpose of omitting root from the list of users is rather to avoid encouraging root logins into the GUI interface (Gnome should inform you during login that it is not advised to do that).

linux

squall1986 · 02-24-2009, 11:33 AM

Ya, I type in root as the username and then put in the correct password, but it says something to the effect of "cannot authenticate that user." Is there some setting somewhere that disables the login of root at the login screen?

shahzad1 · 02-24-2009, 02:33 PM

squall1986, In Fedora 10 the root login using the GUI has been removed. if you want to log in to root you have to start in runlevel 3 i.e textmode only.
try updating the system software see if it solves the problem. anyway you can always use the su(super user) command in terminal while not in root.
if you are completely new to linux here is a link to give you an idea of some basics. check it out.

"w ww.fedorafaq.org/basics/"

fedix · 03-10-2009, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gergely89

AFAIK you can login as root. The graphical login screen does not list 'root' among the available users, but you can still type in root as the username and as a next step enter the password.

The purpose of omitting root from the list of users is rather to avoid encouraging root logins into the GUI interface (Gnome should inform you during login that it is not advised to do that).

linux

Nope, even root isn't listed, you still can't access it by just typing root and your password.

fedix · 03-11-2009, 01:32 PM

See my post here for a possible solution!

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...empts.-599646/

Actually, the oroginator is here ... http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=209638

decrepit · 03-14-2009, 07:12 AM

I've just found another post on this here.
http://adayinthelifeofatechie.blogsp...ng-blocks.html

ps_sabu · 03-17-2009, 09:47 AM

Thread posted by fedix works.

coonmanx · 04-04-2009, 06:39 PM

Easy solution. Go to /etc/prefdm and move kdm up at the bottom of the fallback list so that it is used instead of gdm. Go into KDE and find the settings for kdm. There is a page where you can enable root login. Done.
The settings for kdm are somewhere in the settings when you click the big F on the panel.