root password doesn't work at log in, works using "su"
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root password doesn't work at log in, works using "su"
hey guys, my root password doesn't work when i try to log onto the system as root, but it does work if I log in as another user then do "su". I need to be able to log onto my system as root for back up purposes and can't figure this out. Anyone seen something like this before?
As long as you can do su, there's actually no need to log in as root! In fact, this is most definitely a safety feature (not being able to login as root, I mean), many people change their system's behaviour to do exactly that.
Solutions without changing the safety level:
- If you can, log in with your user and use su - it's more healthy that way.
- Install and use sudo, adding your user to /etc/sudoers - but for safety's sake, have sudo use a password. man sudo and man sudoers are very helpful.
- Later on, you may even want to write a simple script to do your backup tasks for you (that can be run by cron as root).
gparker: Technically, you're right - but I'd strongly advise against this, since it's not good practice. But of course, it's the way to achieve what you describe...
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