[SOLVED] Administrative Password

[pykus]

I've searched here and on the wiki and I can't find any information about this. When i try to open the root terminal it asks for the administrative password, but my password doesnt work. What gives?

 

[slaeshjag]

the root-password isn't set by default. Use sudo in a regular terminal to do administrative tasks that require full system access instead.

 

[darfgarf]

technically the root password is set, you just don't know it in this case (and don't need to as you're a sudoer)

 

[lomaxx]

There are reasons why someone still might want to set a root-password. For example if you want to use the "halt" or "reboot" of slim. For the one who does not know: "slim" is the display-manager that the Pandora uses. It's the screen where you enter your username and password before then continuing to xfce or minimenu. You can enter "halt" and "reboot" there instead of a username. But it only works if you set a root-password before.


So here are two more detailed descriptions, pykus:


If you want to become superuser without setting a password. Then open a normal terminal (not root-terminal) and type

sudo su

followed by your username-password. If i remember correctly by default the superuser does not use "bash" as the user does, but instead just "sh". (For an explanation about what "bash" is, see: Wikepdia: Bash). So you might want to type:

/bin/bash

These two commands should leave you with a root-terminal. If you just want to execute one single command as root, you can also instead just write

sudo <command>

followed by your user-password. Replace <command> with the command you want to run.



The alternative is to set a password for root, which you can do by executing

passwd

in a root-terminal or with "sudo". After typing in your new password twice, you can then use the "root-terminal"-option in the xfce-menu or the above mentioned slim-features.



If you automatically want to use the bash-shell when you log in as root you have to CAREFULLY edit the file /etc/passwd with an editor and change the last part of the first line to "/bin/bash" instead of "/bin/sh". Be warned: If you do something wrong there, then your system might become unusable.



excerpt from /etc/passwd:

root:x:0:0:root:/home/root:/bin/bash

 

[skeezix]

"sudo bash" is generally all you need to know; you don't generally need to know root's password at all.


You can of course, as Lomaxx noted, sudo bash jonce.. then set the root password, and call it a day.


(The reason its random is to make the device relatively secure; unlike a jailbroken iphone where every single one of them has the same root password and has wifi on by default....


jeff

 

[pykus]

Sweet. This is exactly what I was looking for. Every explanation I found on the net cautioned against using the information I was looking for before explaining the alternatives and never saying how to set or use the root password. Thanks very much for your help!

 

[Nintendo]

All sorted. Good stuff.


Locked.