Im after setting up fedora 10 desktop here and anytime I try to make any changes to the system it keeps asking me for a root password. I never assigned anytime of password to the system except to log in for.

The message comes up system-config-rootpassword
asking for admin privleges

Wouldnt I be the admin seeing how I set it up or do I need to make myself admin, sorry new to this here and I you could dumb it down for me that would be great. cheers

Try this...

Enter your password...if it comes back successfully then you can change the root password like this...

Even better would be
But if you can't you need to boot into single user mode to change the password....

-C

Trust me, you set a root password---it just may not have been obvious what was happening.

At the end of the post above, he mentions booting in single-user mode. To do that:
reboot
when the grub menu appears, hit any key to stop the count
hit e for edit
select the kernel line and e again
add the word "single" (no quotes), and hit return
hit b to boot

You will come up in a terminal mode--as root--with no password needed. enter "passwd", and then enter a new root password.

Finally, enter "init 5" to get back to normal login.

And just a "heads up:" On Fedora, no users are in the /etc/sudoers file by default, so the sudo commnad suggested above will not work for you. And the "single" boot option mentioned above may need to be the number "1"

Note that another way to (re)set the root password is to boot from your installation media and select the "Rescue an installed system" option. After you enter the chroot command suggested at the end of the boot (after a lot of output) you will be logged in as "root" and can use the command lpasswd -P <password> root (where <passwoed> is the new password string you want to use) to change the password. (The passwrd command requires that you know the root password in order to change it, whilst lpasswd will, I think, just make the change if you're logged in as "root.")

See man passwrd and man lpasswd for details.

Yes, my method assumes that you've set up sudo.

Going into single user mode seems like the best option.

Hey Jamesq106, did the suggestions work for you? I also have the same problem. I'm not aware I set up a root password when I installed Fedora. Now I need one to install software. I'd be interested in how you went. Regards.

you DO NOT have " the same problem" as was with fedora 10

the root gui login in fedora 17 HAS BEEN DISABLED ( disabled back in fedora 11 )
by BOTH the fedora development team AND by the Gnome desktop development team



if you need to be root to build software or install using the yum gui
type in the root password you set up on the third screen during install
Into the pop up window or in the terminal

fedora BY DEFAULT dose NOT use "sudo"
to use that YOU have to manually set that up

Fedora uses" su" and " su -"
that is su then a dash

Thanks John VV. I have not manually set up sudo and unfortunately I do not recall establishing a root password when I installed Fedora. Under Newbie in this forum it has been suggested that I try the commands "sudo passwd root" or "sudo bash" to prompt me to set the su password.
Are you suggesting that the reference to sudo will not be valid? Might you know of another way that I may get to the 'root' of things without a password?
Thanks

in order to set up the sudoers file you HAVE to have the root password you DID set up

during the install you were Asked to set the root password
THEN AFTER the install on the FIRST boot you then made a normal user account .


you can NOT use sudo on fedora without editing the sudoers file and you NEED to be root to do that

see the mjmwired page for fedora 17 sudo
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mj...-f17.html#sudo

If you've forgotten you "root" password, you can reset it by booting from a LiveCD (any Fedora LiveCD or installation disk should work), picking the "rescue" mode, doing the suggested chroot command (usually, chroot /boot/sysimage), and entering the passwd command.

Note that you could also edit the sudoers file whilst in that mode. On my system, I have this line:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

in my sudoers file, and I've put myself in the wheel group.

Note: It's not a good idea to put that big a hole in you security if there is any outside access you your system and you have anything in your computer to which you wouldn't want the whole world to have access.

Thanks for your assistance. I see I have two avenues to pursue: 1. Boot in single user mode, or 2. Boot from a Live CD or installation disc in rescue mode.

Regarding option 2: I initially downloaded Fedora from the Parallels Desktop Wizard so I don't have any installation media. This may be why I missed observing my root password in the first place. I could download the media again outside the Parallels Desktop Wizard and just start again. I don't know how easily that would integrate into my Parallels Desktop 7 software.

I have investigated option 1. Back in 2005 in this thread, Pixellany described the process of rebooting in single user mode. The suggestion was to locate the kernal line in the grub menu and add the word "single" (subsequently suggested by PTrenholm that this might need to be the number "1"). The trouble here is that I don't know which is the kernal line. The grub version I am looking at is GNU GRUB version 2.00~beta4.

If anyone is able to steer me towards the kernal line in grub and assist in me booting in single user mode that would be much appreciated. Once there the idea would be to use "passwd" to enter a new root password.

This updates my last post made 30 min ago. Somewhat out of frustration I tried entering 'sudo passwd root' and was able to get to the root and enter a new pass word. To John VV: I had not set up sudo manually but there you go - it still worked. Thank you all for your advice. Regards.