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I just recently installed Ubuntu 11.04 on my desktop, and I only entered in one password during the install process. This password works to log into the machine, run updates etc. When I open up the terminal, and try to use su and I enter in the same password... I get an Authentication failure.

I've booted my computer up in recovery mode, and reset the password from the command line, but I'm still getting the same authentication error.

If anyone could help me out, I would appreciate it.

Troy Knapp
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  • I'm sorry but have you even bothered to google or read documentation? – serverhorror Sep 24 '11 at 16:41
  • I figured with as obvious as the answer was there would have to be one guy that would say something like that. *sigh* Now that I know the answer, I'm able to better phrase the question so that google pulls up more relevant results... but that didn't help me when I was looking through page after page of tutorials on how to reset the root password. – Troy Knapp Sep 24 '11 at 17:53

1 Answers1

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In Ubuntu the root account is locked by default. To perform administrative tasks in Ubuntu you need to use sudo instead. If you need a root shell, use sudo -i.

Of course you can just unlock the root account with sudo passwd root but after that you are not doing thing 'in Ubuntu way'. Is that a good thing or not, you decide.

Janne Pikkarainen
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