root authentication failed!!imp!!

[newbie12]

Hi all, I am verymuch new to redhat and I need to login as root to do some installations ( as advised by my instructor). But I get a "authentication failed" message when I log in to root even if I give a correct password. I tried searching this forum and google but nothing worked for me.
I also modified the two lines one in gdm and other in gdm-password. but didn't worked for me. So can anyone please help me solving this issue.
Also tried installing redhat6 again, but still the same.
Thanks,
Sai

[hazel]

Hi all, I am verymuch new to redhat and I need to login as root to do some installations ( as advised by my instructor). But I get a "authentication failed" message when I log in to root even if I give a correct password. I tried searching this forum and google but nothing worked for me.
I also modified the two lines one in gdm and other in gdm-password. but didn't worked for me. So can anyone please help me solving this issue.
Also tried installing redhat6 again, but still the same.
Thanks,
Sai

Most distros don't let you log in as root on your graphical desktop. It's much too dangerous.
You should find a "root console" somewhere in your menu system; this gives you a graphical terminal (xterm) when you enter the root password. Alternatively, press CTRL-ALT-F1 to get a non-graphical "virtual console" and log in there.
Do what you have to do and then get out; never stay as root any longer than you have to.

[newbie12]

Thank you for the reply.
So it is dangerous to be in root. ok but where can I find the graphical terminal, is it the same terminal which shows up in the right click menu "open in terminal" or its something different.
if that is the terminal I can login into root using that terminal.
Also, when I press ctrl-alt-f1 I get nothing. I am using redhat 6. does this matter?
Please let me know.

Thanks,
Sai

[hazel]

Thank you for the reply.
So it is dangerous to be in root. ok but where can I find the graphical terminal, is it the same terminal which shows up in the right click menu "open in terminal" or its something different.
if that is the terminal I can login into root using that terminal.

Yes, that's the right program but probably the user form of it. The root form asks you for a root password before opening the terminal. With xterms, you don't actually log on; the system does that for you. Do you have a menu labelled "system" or "admin"? It's probably in there.

Also, when I press ctrl-alt-f1 I get nothing. I am using redhat 6. does this matter?

When you say Redhat 6, I hope you mean RHEL6. If it's the old Red Hat 6, it's way, way out of date. Don't you even get a login prompt with ctrl-alt-f1? If not, I'm really flummoxed.


Thanks,
Sai[/QUOTE]

[atreyu]

I can confirm on my RHEL 6 box that CTRL+ALT+F1 should take you to a virtual term (X is running on vt7/CTRL+ALT+F7). You should be able to get virtual terms on CTRL+ALT+F1 thru F6.

Anyway, to gain root access on your desktop, try this:

From the Gnome Panel (across the top, but maybe across the bottom) click on:
Applications > System Tools > Terminal

A terminal window should pop up (black text on white background, by default), and you should be at a prompt that says something like:

[user@server ~]$

Now you want to "su" to root, so type this in the terminal window:

su -

and then press Enter.

You should now be prompted for root's password (you know it, right?), so enter it. If you enter the corrrect password, you will now be root - your prompt should now have changed to something like:

[root@server ~]#

When you are done doing root stuff, just type "exit" in the terminal window to exit from su.

BTW, what stuff are you trying to do as root? If it is command line stuff, that is easy: just type them into the terminal, and they will be run as root. But if it is graphical apps that you want to run as root, and you are used to running them by double-clicking desktop shortcuts, or via the Applications menu, then you'll need to know the name of the app in order to launch it from the command line, e.g., to run the Virtual Machine Manager as root, i'd just have to su to root in my terminal window (as we've just done) and type:

virt-manager

and the graphical application would be launched as root.

Note: there are graphical front-ends to su (gksu, beesu, etc.) which are handy-dandy, but I could not find any in the default RHEL 6 repo.