Hello,

I have installed ubuntu 8.04 i386 to a spare machine and I'm having trouble with my sound card.

I was going to run alsaconf and to my surprise I cannot SU to root because I dont know the password.During installation I dont think I was ever asked to supply a root password?

If anyone can give me the default root password for this distro I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks alot

Hi there PipeDreams,

at terminal, type

$ su -s

and give your own password, that is the password you setup for the first user when you installed. In Ubuntu, you have to specifically assign a password to root. It is assumed that the person who installed the OS should be on the 'sudoer' list. Hope you can follow that!

Thats what I get in return.

Thanks for the help.Its been awhile for Ubuntu.

Sorry pipedreams, i shoulda been clearer! the '$' is meant to mean your prompt as a non-root user. '#' generally denotes that you are root. so, at terminal, try

su -s

su means the same as every other linux distro, and the -s flag/option means you want to become supervisor. try again, and see how it goes for you??

Pipedreams --

Ubuntu is set up to use the sudo command on the command line. Just enter:
It will then prompt you for your normal user password. You can then enter some more sudo (command) entries for about the next 5 minutes without the need to re-enter your password during that time.

The sudo configuration in the *buntu distros allows you to do almost any system level command that is normally allowed for a "root" user.

sudo -i will do it.

Thanks for the replies.

I found that
allowed me to do what I needed to do after my user password.

However I still have a soundcard issue(no sound) and
did not run the utility.

Does ubuntu have a soundcard config utility out of the box?

Thanks alot for the help.

There is no alsaconf in Ubuntu (they've joined the distros that remove useful tools and replace them with their own).

So run lspci in a terminal, and see how it identifies your sound device. Post it here and we can try to help.

IGF

This should be sudo -s. su's -s option is to specify the shell. Also, unless the root account is enabled, using su will not work. su which stands for 'switch user' and it will not switch to a disabled or nonexistant account. To be able to use su as root the root account must first be enabled.

Sorry for the huge delay in responding.

I must admit I was trying to help a friend with his ubuntu machine with no sound.Out of curiosity I loaded the latest Ubuntu on a spare box I had and was surprised and a little dismayed.

Ubuntu picked up every piece of hardware I had including the usb wireless dongle and even had drivers for them all!Big change from a couple of years ago when I tried it.Way to go Ubuntu team.

What I dont understand is why I cant simply log in as root and have full control of MY machine and its os (That old MS leash scar around my neck is starting to throb)and yes alsaconf was a great utility.It ALWAYS worked with ANY hardware I used.Maybe I just got lucky.Anyway as soon as I can catch up with my friend I'll get The lspci statement and post it.

Thanks again for all the help.

Running the OS as root, is a security issue, and is not recommended on any distro. This is one reason why its so easy to get molested on Windows. If you want to do something as root, just use sudo.

If you must have a root password it's as easy as:

sudo passwd

Then you can su to your heart's content. I stopped setting one a long time ago, though, I can't think of any practical reasons not to use sudo or gksu instead.

On systems that use sudo,

$ sudo -s
will switch you to root after you successfully enter your password. You can also try

sudo bash,

which will start a bash shell running with root permissions. Don't forget to "exit" when your done with commands that need root!

Ubuntu does not by default use a root password. You use SUDO, which uses your own password to perform root tasks.

If you really want to use root, (assuming you are using GNOME) go to System > Administration > Users and Groups.

Then set root password.

To log in via login window, go to System > Administration > Login Window > Security and check the box for allowing root login.

Good luck!