[SOLVED] Root Terminal

borgward · 12-05-2018, 07:58 PM

How do I open a root terminal. mint 18.0 Cinnamon. I created a unix root password:
$ sudo passwd
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully

sudo root
sudo: root: command not found
$ root
The program 'root' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install root-system-bin

I have not installed the above is the above correct? It will create a root terminal?

frankbell · 12-05-2018, 08:07 PM

"Root" is a user or a directory, but it's not a command.

Try

Code:

sudo [name of terminal emulator]

Since you have created a root password, you could also open a terminal as user, then run the command su and enter the root password when prompted to become root without having to repeatedly enter sudo. You can leave "su" status with the command "exit." See man su for more.

Ztcoracat · 12-05-2018, 08:11 PM

If you want to run your terminal as the root user just open your terminal and use sudo <name of command>.

Mint comes with a package manager to take care of things that are required by elevated privileges for administrative tasks.

Why do you need a root terminal?

hydrurga · 12-06-2018, 03:55 AM

You did not need to give root a password as described in your opening post. Although this can be done, it is usually inadvisable to do so as it can cause confusion for an inexperienced user. I would suggest that you return the root password to the Mint/Ubuntu default (locked and passwordless) with the two following commands:

Code:

sudo passwd -d root

sudo passwd -l root

To open a terminal as root in Mint Cinnamon, simply enter the following command on the terminal (using your normal user password when requested):

Code:

sudo gnome-terminal

Remember to be careful what you're doing in that terminal as every single command will have root privileges. You should provide a response to Ztoracat's question as to why you need to run a terminal as root - normally you just issue sudo for any root privilege commands you want to run.

BW-userx · 12-06-2018, 07:49 AM

you can title your terminal as well, most all of them, if not all of them have a means to control this via cli execution type settings etc..

If you did not already know this. Some have a preference setting to control colours and such as well.

Code:

xterm -geometry 80x35 -sb -fg white -bg grey20 -T 'Xterm: User' &
xterm -geometry 80x35 -sb -fg snow -bg midnightblue -T 'Xterm: Root'  &
//to trun the last one into root user at start up.
//Just add the sudo as told about.
sudo xterm -geometry 80x35 -sb -fg snow -bg midnightblue -T 'Xterm: Root'  &

as well as, as mentioned, having one open as root, one needs to keep an eye on it if more than one terminal is opened, so as to not get confused while typing in them and using the wrong one, that maybe where the colours can come in, setting root terminal a specif colour to indicate it is a root privileged terminal if the pound sign # isn't enough when quickly accessing the terminal(s) to bang out some commands.

if you just need root privs in a term, then use sudo, or su, or su - , and some distros maybe still using 'sudo su' in a terminal. Those were the ones that did not give root user , or rather try to hide it away from the person installing , and most likely using the OS.

In order to become an experienced user, one needs to expose themselves to the conditions to become one, which is not by trying to hide root user 'dude', and not tie the apron sting back on.

borgward · 12-06-2018, 07:57 AM

[QUOTE=hydrurga;5933942] I would suggest that you return the root password to the Mint/Ubuntu default (locked and passwordless) with the two following commands:

Code:

sudo passwd -d root

sudo passwd -l root

[QUOTE=hydrurga;5933942]To open a terminal as root in Mint Cinnamon, simply enter the following command on the terminal (using your normal user password when requested):

Code:

sudo gnome-terminal

Good answer. Not to worry, I was doing this on an extra computer that I use for experiments. Not much on it. I can reinstall if I break anything. It seems like there used to be an option to open terminal as root. Maybe that was on the live disc.

hydrurga · 12-06-2018, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by borgward

Good answer. Not to worry, I was doing this on an extra computer that I use for experiments. Not much on it. I can reinstall if I break anything. It seems like there used to be an option to open terminal as root. Maybe that was on the live disc.

No problem, Borgward. What I've done on my system is create a couple of launchers (which I've placed in my Cairo Dock but they could be placed on the desktop) which open the terminal and the file manager as root, respectively. I hardly ever need to use them but they come in handy if I have to do a protracted session of activities as root.

Just for info, the commands that I use in these Cairo launchers (on my Mint 19 MATE system) are:

Code:

lxqt-sudo mate-terminal

Code:

su-to-root -X -c caja

The first one may appear strange, but gksudo no longer exists in Mint 19/Ubuntu 18.04 (due to a move to pkexec). However, lxqt-sudo is still kicking around the repos and does the trick nicely. Actually the second one may also appear strange but Cairo can be a bit fussy sometimes and I played around until I found variations that did what I wanted to do.

cynwulf · 12-06-2018, 08:46 AM

The two most viable options are to either stick with sudo(8) or enable the root account and use su(1) to gain root privileges. There is also nothing to prevent you from using a combination of both.

All other options will involve launching X11 applications as root, which is as a rule bad practice and in almost all cases completely unnecessary. Running any X11 file managers as root is a particularly bad idea.