Having a Ubuntu Root Account with a Password

Where is the Root Account Now?

Recently, I have installed and been using Ubuntu. That's a very popular Linux distribution.

You see, I'm an old UNIX geek and I have found out that these new Linux distributions are now much more simpler to install.  It is as simple as installing a Windows 7 operating system.

This is very good for the ordinary personal computer user. They ask you only the language you wish to use, they also want to know your time zone, and finally, you create a user with a password.

This user will have administrative privileges, after a successful authentication, when required by some operations.

Though sometimes, you really want to become root, the Super User, to perform modifications in your system. Otherwise, you will need to prefix every administrative commands with sudo and type your password every time administrative credentials are required. This can be a pain if you have several commands to execute as root.

To create a root account with a password, you need to do this once:

Figure 1 - Giving a new password to root

As you can see in the above terminal, you proceed like this:

1. sudo su
2. Enter the password for marc in this case - he is a system administrator.
3. Then, use the command passwd - to change the root password.  You can also type passwd root if you want to be more explicit.
4. Type two times the new password for root.
5. And voilà!

Note: The passwords are not echoed in the terminal for security reasons.