How does on login as the root ? And what password do I use for it ?
 

In order to use some of the instructions online to activate software, one has to login as the root. How on earth do I do this, and with what password ?

Also, what is my sudo password ?
And also, what is my su password ?

If you're using Ubuntu (and I infer from other posts and icons shown that you do), you have to use sudo - your password for that as the main user (the one you created on installation) is your password (yes, the same!). Actually, the GNOME dialogues state that (but not the CLI ones, to be fair).

M.

When you installed Linux, you were asked for a root password. Do you remember what password you entered? It's very important.

Your root password.

Your root password.

Get it? Your root password is very important.

Ubuntu install does not ask for root password.Your sudo password is the one you created for yourself.

Obviously I didn't believe this, since it represents a glaring security hole, but I looked it up and you're right -- Ubuntu really doesn't create a default root password, and it really does accept any user password for root access.

This takes my breath away. Any small interest I might have had in Ubuntu just evaporated.

I was under the impression that it's just the first created (non-root) user that gets an automatic

sudo su -

entry in sudoers,

That's right -- a user has to be in the "admin" group to use sudo by default. The sudo utility is actually very cool since it allows one to distribute root access among multiple system administrators (and limit what they can do) without distributing the root password. It also (if used properly, can provide much more of an audit trail than plain su.

FWIW, I believe the server edition of Ubuntu sets up a root account as normal, and root can easily be enabled on the desktop versions.

I had a nice chat with a Ubuntu rep at the last SCALE---he was tryng to explain how their "no root user" policy actually improves security. I was not convinced.

I'm told that--in the Ubuntu forums--you can get banned for posting the fix, but here we are on friendly ground:

In a terminal:
"sudo passwd root".

Now you have root privileges--and anothe password to remember. But: Open a settings dialog, and it still wants your user password....

(I don't use Ubuntu....)

just out of curiosity I removed the admin rights of my user to see if Ubuntu would ask for the root password... WRONG! I wasn't able to manage the system because it would say that my user didn't have rights to do so neither asked for the ROOT password.. heheheh learning experience. I had to: # adduser 'myuser' admin
# adduser 'myuser' adm
# adduser 'myuser' sys

lol it was fun tho but I won't deny I was sweating for a lil bit. I thought I messed up my system which I did a clean install LAST SUNDAY!

I would still need to know why do you need to be root all the time? If its your desktop you do not need to be root. sudo can grant you the rights temporarily.

So basically, if you are going to administer a Ubuntu system you should set up a root password or else anyone with sudo rights, say a junior systems admin or a person who needs access to sudo, will have the ability to do it anyway ? If so, what does this say about Ubuntu's decision not to give one the right to set a root password in the first place during initial set up ?

Thats what you call.."With the great power comes the great responsibility". root has all the power in your system and you do not need all these power to do your day to day work.

I will defer from this statement. Ubuntu has taken a very clever approach. While installation you are not allowed to create root, but you create a normal user. However, this user is provided a sudo acces to be root with his own password. This effectively gives him root access when he need. I personally found this aproach really good. You should know what you are doing to avoid any unintentional data loss.

Not anyone can administer with their password. Only the first account that is setup during the installation is automatically given sudo rights. All the other user accounts setup later would need to be given the permissions to use sudo manually.
That is not that bad either. And with this setup you will seldom need the root password unless you are administering a server, in which case root password will be set during install.

That's not exactly what I said.... You can do all your admin stuff as the "lead user" using sudo. That is what the Ubuntu maintainers think you should do. For someone more traditional, you CAN enable root as I showed----but you do not NEED to.

Wow, that was a hell of ride for a newb ;)

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

M.