Being root

[Florian Diesch]

"Amedee Van Gasse (Ubuntu)" <amedee-ubuntu at amedee.be> wrote:

> On Wed, June 24, 2009 12:09, bill wrote:
>> In unix I am used to logging on as root when I need to do a series of
>> administrative tasks, aware of the danger. New to linux, I haven't found a
>> way of logging on as root or su'ing to root. When I installed I did not
>> enter a root password and that makes it difficult to log in.
>>
>> How does one set the root password, or is this never done ?
>
> Normally Linux is the same as Unix, but Ubuntu is a special case: the root
> password is encrypted, effectively disabling root. You need to use sudo.

Passwords are always encrypted. When doing password authentication the
given password is encrypted and compared with the stored encrypted
password. For root the encrypted password has a value the encryption
function will never return so no password will ever match. That
disables password authentication for root.



   Florian
-- 
<http://www.florian-diesch.de/>