Ubuntu has the root account disabled and encourages the use of sudo to run commands as root. If you are doing some work requiring root access, it can be tiresome to type sudo over and over. The normal way to get a root shell is the su command, which doesn’t work in Ubuntu.
This command is the equivalent of su for Ubuntu, it asks for your password and switches to the root user:
sudo -s
And don’t forget to type exit to switch back to your normal user when you are done.
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Also ’sudo su -’ will do the trick.
Don’t know what the difference is though, maybe different environment set-ups?
Why “sudo -s” and not “sudo su”?
’sudo su’ works – the su command has not been removed, it is too valuable for logging on as a user ’su [username]‘.
Oops… also, you can hit CTRL+D to exit from the su mode, as well as closing the terminal, and logging out from ssh sessions.
Kirrus, menek, jackflap
sudo -s does exactly the same thing as sudo su. Either one is fine.
There is also a root terminal that is in the Applications menu. You have to right-click to edit the menu’s and add a check to the root terminal listing.
I do ’sudo passwd’ and make a root password, then I can just login as root do a simple ’su’ to get a root terminal.
and how is sudo -i different?
I was taught to use ’sudo bash’ in Ubuntu, does that do the same thing?
According to the Ubuntu Wiki, sudo -i and sudo -s are the same thing as typing sudo -su
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo#head-e5dd6585ff1d17e0ded49d7f947b462ac22f37c7
Lametard, I’m not sure why you’d want to enable the root account, when sudo is as easily available to you. Just another possible security whole you have to deal with. Just my two cents, I’m not knockin’ what you’re doing…
I tend to enable the root account, just for the backup it gives me, and for when I want to quickly get access to the root shell.
it stinks, my vista computer is down for about 24 hours and i am working on my dad’s computer to get it working for youtube videos. he hasn’t bothered to try and do this so i decided to take the time to try….. geez, this stuff is weird and I can’t do anything without his root password. I probably won’t check this post again but is it possible to create another password or to overwrite the existing one?
create a new user with sudo addusr and use that one in command line for install purposes =P
With Debian it doesn’t work with sudo -s …. is there any possibility to type in a command which gives me administrative rights (root) with that Debian Linux… or how to find the root terminal…. i think i heard about that one anytime but i got no idea if it exists….