Root Login in Ubuntu 11.10

October 13, 2011

The sudo command will give the power of root user to an ordinary user in Ubuntu 11.1o. Without the root permission a user cannot change the file sysem, install a software, add or remove a kernel module, configure various services in a linux system. That is why the system is stable and free from virus programmes. The root login is disable by default in ubuntu 11.10. If a user will login as root and damage the file system then that will affect the performance of the operating system.

If you want to login as root then here is a way to unlock the GUI login as root, on Ubuntu 11.10

Enable root login in Ubuntu 11.10

Open Terminal [shortcut : Ctrl+Alt+t] and type the command.

sudo passwd root

Then you will be asked to enter your login password. Then the new password of ROOT account. Enter it twice, and if everything is ok, then you will get a confirmation message as the password updated successfully.

Then just log out from the current session and login the user as root. That is you want to enter the user name on the login screen root then the password given above step.

If you experience any permission denied error message when executing a command then just try prepend sudo before the command

Like:

apt-get update

will give you an error on normal command they try

sudo apt-get update

this will ask the password and the command will be executed in root mode.

command for temporary root power

This command is almost similar to previous one but it requires root password, so root account must be enabled for this to work. To go to root mode, at terminal just type the command, followed by root password.

[email protected]:~$ su -s

After entering the correct password, you will be entered into root mode and the prompt will change into # from $. This indicates that the user is now in root mode for that command terminal. If you close the terminal the mode also closed. Press Cntrl+c to exit from the root mode.

[email protected]:/home/user#

Run nautilus with root power

If you are copying or opening some system related files then it’s very useful to start the nautilus in root mode. To do that you can use root browser plugin in nautilus. The command is also very simple.

Open terminal and type –

sudo nautilus

The commands are almost same for Fedora, Linux Mint, OpenSuse, Debian, etc.

Be care full as root mode. This is exclusively used for administration purpose. No one will come to stop you in your work in root mode. If you go wrong then everything will be wrong. Great power comes with great responsibility.

Have Fun!