[Ubuntu] Default Root Password?

[FN-GM]

Hi

Im just dipping my toe into the Linux world.

I have installed Ubuntu server in a VM on my mac. Install went fine and i like how good it was i could install Lamp during the install.

I would like to set a root password, during the install i did not set one.

What is the default password?

Thanks

Z

[RabbieBurns]

open up terminal form the applications menu

just do "sudo passwd"

and it should get you to create a root password

[localzuk]

To expand a bit, Ubuntu doesn't enable root by default, but gives the initial user sudo privileges. So, you can make use of sudo to set a root password if you need to, but ideally, you shouldn't need to.

[FN-GM]

Thanks, i get you. Getting my head around linux will be a big learning curve.

[SteveMC]

To expand a bit, Ubuntu doesn't enable root by default, but gives the initial user sudo privileges. So, you can make use of sudo to set a root password if you need to, but ideally, you shouldn't need to.

And if you find yourself having to type a long sequence of commands that all need super-user (otherwise known as 'su' or 'root') privileges, you can type:

sudo -s

Which will switch you to the root user until you type

exit

Stephen

[RabbieBurns]

is that the same as "su -" ?

[powdarrmonkey]

is that the same as "su -" ?

Yeee-no. Kinda. It effectively gives you the same power as su, but doesn't spawn a new login shell and replace your environment variables, doesn't need you to know (or share) the root password, only allows allowed commands to be executed, etc. But to all intents and purposes, unless you share the machine with somebody else, yes.

[kesomir]

I use

sudo su

to switch to root and then

passwd

to set the root password.

[RabbieBurns]

Yeee-no. Kinda. It effectively gives you the same power as su, but doesn't spawn a new login shell and replace your environment variables, doesn't need you to know (or share) the root password, only allows allowed commands to be executed, etc. But to all intents and purposes, unless you share the machine with somebody else, yes.

Thanks, learn something new every day

[unixman]

To expand a bit, Ubuntu doesn't enable root by default, but gives the initial user sudo privileges. So, you can make use of sudo to set a root password if you need to, but ideally, you shouldn't need to.

This is not completely accurate. The root account is not disabled; it has an invalid password hash, so that the authentication process will fail.

[sparkeh]

This is worth a read to learn about Ubuntu/root/sudo: RootSudo

Explains why Ubuntu does it like this, when to use sudo, gksudo and sudo -i

HTH

[srochford]

Thanks, i get you. Getting my head around linux will be a big learning curve.

It might even be worth it :-)

The sudo stuff is a bit like "run as administrator" in Vista; sudo -s is like running a command prompt as administrator.