su
 

when I type in su and it asks for my password, the correct password still does not let me access root. Even when I don't set a password to root and then just type "<Enter>" it says incorrect password. I am running the latest version of Ubuntu. I know the password is correct. Is there another command besides "su" for getting to root?

The su utility requires the root password.

The sudo utility requires the normal user account password.

yeah but I have to get to my root in order to install new programs like MATLAB, which I am trying to do. However, it doesn't recognize my password as correct even tho I am 100% sure it is.

is it ubuntu? is so just use sudo

Ubuntu doesn't use "su" - as suggeted, "sudo" is considered the way to do things. However I have had issues with install scripts that may start other shells and need tobe root. There is probably a (sanctioned) way around this using sudo, but I just use "sudo su", then run the script as root.
Try that.

or what6 you do i the following

sudo su
passwd
type new password
now su will work with password you just installed or you can use sudu -s i think that will set you in a root shell

thx i think that may have helped if any of u kno anything about programming, shoot on over to the programming forum and see if u can answer to my post "bash: g++ command not found"