Can't get 'su' to work for me.

7pack · 09-09-2008, 12:38 PM

Linux newbie that's being humbled again. Managed to get my monitor resolution problem solved and my wireless is zipping right along, giving me enough confidence to get just a wee bit cocky. However linux being what it is....I now come before you with a slice of humble pie in each hand. This one is very simple I'm sure...but for the life of me I can't figure it out. (could be a senior moment/hour/day). In a terminal window I use the 'su' command and it will ask for my password...after entering I get "Authentication failure".....I'm sure it has something to do with me not setting the system up correctly. The password works ok when getting into Administration windows etc. And while I'm at it tell me please why "sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf" works and just a simple "su" will not.

Could it be that I've set it up so I'm signing in as root and the system wants passwords that have not been issued yet? Geez.

I'll get it one day.

Thanks again....just an old geezer trying to stay busy.

{BBI}Nexus{BBI} · 09-09-2008, 12:56 PM

Ubuntu uses sudo by design not su. See here for an explaination of sudo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudo there is also a link to an explaination of su.

pixellany · 09-09-2008, 02:09 PM

You can enable the root account in Ubuntu by doing: "sudo passwd root". Then you can take on root powers by entering "su" and the new root password. (Just like every other version of Linux on the planet----except that Ubuntu will still want your USER password whenever you open up a system config utility)

This "no root user" nonsense is the ONLY flaw in Ubuntu.......

7pack · 09-09-2008, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

You can enable the root account in Ubuntu by doing: "sudo passwd root". Then you can take on root powers by entering "su" and the new root password.
This "no root user" nonsense is the ONLY flaw in Ubuntu.......

Now it makes sense.....thanks 'pixellany.'

nny0000 · 09-09-2008, 05:30 PM

Another quick way to get a root prompt is to 'sudo su -' at the command prompt. Enter your user password and voila! a root prompt.

pixellany · 09-09-2008, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nny0000

Another quick way to get a root prompt is to 'sudo su -' at the command prompt. Enter your user password and voila! a root prompt.

I go into root mode an average of 37 times per day.
"sudo su" = 7 keystrokes
"su" = 2
delta = 5
5 * 37 = 185 extra keystrokes per day.....At my age, that's a lot of effort.....

jgallo · 09-29-2008, 12:07 PM

'sudo su' FTW

Linux Archive

tur third · 09-30-2008, 07:57 AM

This confused me when I switched to Ubuntu, and I enabled 'su', then never used it again.

I haven't found any reason to use 'su'. All the documentation for configuring Ubuntu will give you instructions using 'sudo' - my suggestion is to go with the flow and stick to 'sudo'.

Your user ID has the right to run commands as su using sudo - simple as that. Therefore no need to login as 'su'.