[SOLVED] I cant change passwords?

[muhammedda]

Hi everyone
i am using ubuntu 8.4 hardy ubuntu
i dont know what my root password is
i always use client account but i need to use root now
actually i know the password but it isnt work

i have tried
system>administration>users and groups
but i could do anyway

[techieMoe]

Ubuntu doesn't set a root password by default. Everything requiring root privileges is done using "sudo" and the regular user's password.

If you need to be able to log in as root, you need to set the root password first. You can do this with:

sudo passwd root
Enter Password: <enter your user password>
New UNIX Password: <enter desired root password>
Password set.

Then log in as root with:

su <enter>
Password: <enter root password>

[D-cat]

There's also this little trick:

sudo su

[oz]

...in addition to what the others have posted, you can check this short article regarding su vs sudo for more information:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ubu...in-ubuntu.html

[D-cat]

Well, that's more about Ubuntu's usage of sudo, doesn't really explain the difference between su and sudo...

...the largest is that sudo does not adjust the environment variables from the user running it to root's, which su does (mostly). This is why Ubuntu has to add the sbin dirs to user paths in order to make sudo run smoothly. In other distros, running something like sudo lspci will still come up with a bash "command not found" error, you'd have to actually run su to get in there and run sbin commands. IOW, sudo runs commands with roots permissions in the user's environment.

[muhammedda]

i have done all of your says but i want to be root when ubuntu open
i wrote username :root
and then i wrote the password but it didnt work

[oz]

i want to be root when ubuntu open

Note that it's generally a very bad idea to always log in as root. I'm not even sure why anyone would ever need to do this.

[techieMoe]

i have done all of your says but i want to be root when ubuntu open
i wrote username :root
and then i wrote the password but it didnt work

I'm going to agree with ozar and say that this is a monumentally bad idea. What is it that you're trying to accomplish? I'm sure there's a way to do it without performing your everyday tasks as root.

[D-cat]

Ozar's right. The "always log in as admin" is a (until recently) Microsoft mentality that undermines the security of any computer running any operating system. Only certiain tasks require administrative (root) rights and only when running a series of those specific tasks should anyone consider logging in as root, and with su, that can be effectively done from the user prompt.

[muhammedda]

i cant use many files like windows for example i want to edit crontab on gnome but it gives me error