logon screen- I'm trying to change my login

voyagertec · 08-31-2020, 04:03 PM

there's an error on my home/etc/apt/sourceslist that wont let me update.
I need to remove a bad repository.list but I cant do it logged into my login.
So I need to login as root, and for some reason it wont let me enter as root.
thanx anyone !!

ondoho · 09-01-2020, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by voyagertec

there's an error on my home/etc/apt/sourceslist that wont let me update.
I need to remove a bad repository.list but I cant do it logged into my login.
So I need to login as root, and for some reason it wont let me enter as root.
thanx anyone !!

Root login might be disabled.
Are you saying you can't log in as a normal user at all? You mean graphical login or text login?

voyagertec · 09-02-2020, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

Root login might be disabled.
Are you saying you can't log in as a normal user at all? You mean graphical login or text login?

Hia-it's during Mint boot and I get my sign-in screen to log on--I tried to logon in as root instead of me, but I cant enter
anything. It shows 'my' login and asks for password, as normal but doesnt let me enter anything else. (I'm the only user
on this machine-its my home laptop, so no other person is setup as user on the machine). I rarely use the terminal, Ive
used Linux Mint for 10 years now-but I still consider myself A fairly new user. Thanx

ondoho · 09-02-2020, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

You mean graphical login or text login?

You dind't answer this question.
But your description sounds like graphical login (login manager).
This restriction is by design; you're not supposed to log into a graphical session as root.
If you want a second user, you have to log in as your primary user and create a second user - then you can log in as that.
If you need to do things as root, you open a terminal and enter

Code:

sudo -i

or

Code:

su

and do them from the command line.