Enable the root account in Ubuntu
Ubuntu is one of the few Linux distributions out there that does not enable the root account by default. If you want to do something with root permission on the console you have to type sudo before the command. “sudo” means superuser do. “sudo” will prompt for you password. Everytime you wish to perform a function with root privledges, you would issue the sudo command first.
Example:
sudo dpkg -i package.deb
This is giving you root privileges to use the dkpg application to install a deb file.
As you have noticed during the Ubuntu installation there was no question about the root password, as you might have been used to see during other Linux distribution installation process. Because of this your root accout is inactive. The username and password for the first created user gets added to the sudoers file, and that’s how sudo authenticates.
But if you prefer having the enable root account (which is not recommended) enter the following command.
$sudo passwd root
This will prompt for a new root password and once you confirm it, you can start using the root account to login.
If you want to disable root account in Ubuntu you need to lock the root account by using the following command
$sudo passwd -l root
If you want to work on a root console you’d use the following command
$sudo -i
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Tags: Ubuntu