Hi, I have a problem and i've been told it's not normal. Even though I correctly type the root password everytime, it still won't make me root. Only after a dozen tries does it finally make me root, though, as I said I entered the correct password each time.. any suggestions on what to do?

Hi,

Maybe too obvious, but you don't mention anything about it:

Are you really sure the correct password is generated. I'm asking because the only time I've seen this behaviour is with a (partially) buggy/broken keyboard. I also used generated instead of typed in my first sentence, it could be that, for example, the shift key is buggy and pressing it doesn't necessarily mean its function is activated (shift a -> a instead of A).

Hope this helps.

The strange this is, even though I type it correctly, the cell interpretor appends the ''su '' part of the command at the end of the password.THis only happens when I receive the message that the password is incorrect. So even though I type ''password'' it appears as''passwordsu:Incorrect password.''. But after about 10 tries, depending on the session, my password is finally accepted and appears as ''password''. It is very strange considering each time the password is the same.

It definitely should not be displaying anything like that under normal circumstances. Maybe it's the syntax of the command itself. Are you issuing? Note the space between su and - .

Not normal at all.

Bad keyboard or fat fingering the keys? Some kind of super lag in the system?

What is showing up in your system logs (/var/log/messages)? I'm not usually a chicken-little type, but my first instinct on this was that some nefarious process is getting involved, and fouling the process. What is the nature of the console where you are doing the typing? Does the behavior change if the type of console/connection changes?
To rule out a borked keyboard, try this: type your password somewhere, and then use X to copy it to a clipboard. Delete it, and enter your password-requiring command. Use X to paste the password into the command, and press the Enter key. I can't imagine the keyboard being the problem, because you'd notice the same problem with other routine work.

--- rod.