What is the default root password?
I installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin), 64 bit. Nowhere was I asked to set password for root. I just installed AccuRev SCM software. It was installed under the /root folder by default. Now I try do something on that folder. I tried with su to switch to root, but I don’t know its password. Should I always use sudo or get the default root password, if any? How do I create a launcher for software installed inside the /root directory?
this lameass website won’t let me answer, but the correct answer is: sudo usermod root -p password; sudo passwd root; then enter the new password. presto, root is unlocked and you can now su/login with root
How idiotic things can get — su is disabled, sudo is not installed, this distribution is used as a base for mssql server, the instructions say you need to sudo open some network ports to enable MSDTC. Back to square 1.
4 Answers 4
By default, the root account is accessed by sudo.
For a complete discussion in the topic, and information for how to set a root password, see: RootSudo — Community Ubuntu Documentation
With that said, it is extremely unlikely you need to set a root password, I advise you use
Or for graphical applications, use gksu
«extremely unlikely you need to set a root password»: I do not agree. If one is logged in as «joeblo», and then needs to move their /home/joeblo directory aside to move in a new one from a previous installation. They cannot do that safely from their own user account. They must do that from some other user account. Yes, they could sudo and then create a second user account, and then sudo and do the move, but that is a waste of effort. This happens to me every time I load a new version of Linux since I want to replace the installer-generated /home/joeblo directory with my previous one.
Bodhi.zazen has by far the best answer; boot to recovery mode (wiki.ubuntu.com/RecoveryMode). If you have a corrupted groups file and can’t sudo (sometimes there is no substitute for being root).
at lindhe — askubuntu.com/questions/11825/… . In addition gksu is in theory better for integrating and security with graphical applications and sudo / su are intended for command line interface (IMHO).
Password for root is not set in Ubuntu which means the root login is disabled by default.
The user account created during Ubuntu installation is associated with all sudo capabilities. You could use sudo for commands that require root privileges in Ubuntu terminal.
However you can enable the root account and set a password for it. To do so use:
Firstly you will be asked for your current user password and after this you will be asked for the new password twice (new and retype password) as your new root password.
I couldn’t remember ever setting up my root password so I couldn’t remember it and $ su root was failing with every password I tried. I ran your command $ sudo passwd root and it worked perfectly. Thanks for a great answer.
You should still configure the root password for Ubuntu. Since it’s disabled by default and you create a user password for all admin tasks on installation, booting into single user mode will give access to a root shell — even if your boot options have been set to prompt for one. It doesn’t have one to ask for unless you set it
sudo has benefits, but not having a root password set can also be troublesome. I had a machine last week that failed to boot up, showing the message «Give root password for maintenance (or press Control-D to continue):» The problem is that the machine did not have a root password set, and just pressing enter would only display the message again, as would control-D, so I had to take the hard drive out and access it from another machine to fix it.
By default the Ubuntu installer does not set up a root password and therefore you don’t get the ability to log in as root. Instead you are given the ability to perform tasks with superuser privileges using sudo.
While you can create a password for the root account allowing you to log in as root with su , there are some distinct benefits to using sudo.
Sudo is an alternative to giving people a root password in order to perform superuser duties. In a default Ubuntu install the person who installed the OS is given «sudo» permission by default.
Anybody with «sudo» permission may perform something «as a superuser» by pre-pending sudo to their command. For instance, to run apt-get dist-upgrade as a superuser, you could use:
By default, sudo will ask you for your own account password when performing this. This helps security. This is remembered for a few minutes so if you have a few tasks to do with sudo it will only ask you for your password on the first.
You will see the above usage of sudo pretty much anywhere you read a tutorial about Ubuntu on the web. It’s an alternative to doing this.
su apt-get dist-upgrade exit With sudo, you choose in advance which users have sudo access. There is no need for them to remember a root password, as they use their own password. If you have multiple users, you can revoke one’s superuser access just by removing their sudo permission, without needing to change the root password and notify everyone of a new password. You can even choose which commands a user is allowed to perform using sudo and which commands are forbidden for that user. And lastly, if there is a security breach it can in some cases leave a better audit trail showing which user account was compromised.
Not having a root password makes brute force attacks on the root account impossible: this is relevant if you allow login over SSH. Instead, an attacker would need to know a local account name.
Sudo makes it easier to perform a single command with superuser privileges. With su , you permanently drop to a superuser shell which must be exited using exit or logout . This can lead to people staying in the superuser shell for longer than necessary just because it’s more convenient than logging out and in again later.
Getting a root shell
With sudo, you still have the option of opening a permanent (interactive) superuser shell with the command:
. and this can still be done without any root password, because sudo gives superuser privileges to the su command.
And similarly, instead of su — for a login shell you can use sudo su — or even sudo -i .
However when doing so you just need to be aware that you are acting as a superuser for every command. It’s a good security principle not to stay as a superuser for longer than necessary, just to lessen the possibility of accidentally causing some damage to the system (without it, you can only damage files your user owns).
Just to clarify, you can, if you choose, give the root user a password allowing logins as root, if you specifically want to do things this way instead. I just wanted to let you know about the Ubuntu convention of preferring sudo instead and let you know that there is an alternative.
Is there some default password for a new user in Linux?
I am a Windows user gradually moving towards Linux. In Windows we have an option of either having or not having some password for a user. Once we do not put a password we can directly log in to the system. However, in Linux this is not possible as every user must have a password. Even if one does not give a password not typing anything and simply pressing the Return key doesn’t log one in (unlike Windows). Is there some default password set for every user or any other mechanism by means of which a password is always assigned?
5 Answers 5
Authentication can be handled in many different ways in Linux. Password authentication via /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow is the usual default. There is no default password.
A user is not required to have a password. In a typical setup a user without a password will be unable to authenticate with the use of a password. This is common for system users which are used to run daemons, but are not intended to be used directly by a human.
You can configure Linux to allow login to the desktop automatically, or allow login without a password. Authentication is done via PAM, which is highly configurable. The Arch wiki offers the following PAM configuration for login without a password:
If you want to bypass the password prompt in GDM then simply add the following line on the first line of /etc/pam.d/gdm-password:
auth sufficient pam_succeed_if.so user ingroup nopasswdlogin Then, add the group nopasswdlogin to your system. See Groups for group descriptions and group management commands. Now, add your user to the nopasswdlogin group and you will only have to click on your username to login.