Ubuntu how do i login as root

About This Article. Written by:. Nicole Levine, MFA. Co-authors: Updated: June 4, Categories: Ubuntu. Deutsch: In Ubuntu Root werden. Bahasa Indonesia: Menjadi Root di Ubuntu. Nederlands: Root worden in Ubuntu. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 1,, times. I tried to use sudo, but I still have the permission issues. Then I tried this tutorial to login as a root user and thus ran my command successfully. Thanks for the great tutorial.

More reader stories Hide reader stories. Is this article up to date? Cookies make wikiHow better. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Vishal Sherathiya Aug 3, Karan Che Feb 10, This thing happened again and again. This article helped me to get the root access and cleared me for a neat installation. Thank you! Derek Williams Jul 26, This was very helpful by answering my first question, then three more that I needed to know for later.

Thank you very much. Rated this article:. Don W. Feb 24, Other sites referenced sudo -i but that doesn't to any good without the PW being set. Diana Gil Mar 7, This article helps me a lot to understand the basic commands. Share yours! More success stories Hide success stories.

By signing up you are agreeing to receive emails according to our privacy policy. Follow Us. We've got the tips you need Subscribe You're all set! Root user on Ubuntu in general is locked so no user can login as root thus su is not likely to work.

For sudo -s to work you will have to be part of the admin group on an Ubuntu machine, which apparently you are not. If you are the only user on the system that is concerning and may be quite involved to fix. If not I would suggest you talk to the System Administrator or owner of the system to see if you even can get root privileges.

If you really need a persistent Root login, the best alternative is to simulate a Root login shell using the following command First of all you need to have admin privileges. If you don't have admin privileges then while booting press and hold the shift key. You will enter the GRUB menu. Here select recovery mode. When you see the list of options like dpkg etc, choose to start a root shell and type:. Then type exit and boot normally. Ubuntu Community Ask! Sign up to join this community.

The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How do I login as root? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 10 months ago. Active 4 years, 2 months ago. You can also configure to run sudo without password.

For the moment, you should know that when you install Ubuntu , you are forced to create a user account. This user account works as the admin on your system and as per the default sudo policy in Ubuntu, it can run any command on your system with root privileges.

And this is why when you run a command with sudo, it asks for the password of the user who is running the sudo command:. If you are absolutely new to Linux, you might be surprised that when you start typing your password in the terminal, nothing happens on the screen. This is perfectly normal because as the default security feature, nothing is displayed on the screen. You type your password and press enter. Bottom line: To run commands as root in Ubuntu, add sudo before the command. When you type the password on the screen, nothing is visible.

Just keep on typing the password and press enter. You can use sudo to run the commands as root. However, in situations, where you have to run several commands as root and you keep forgetting to add sudo before the commands, you may switch to root user temporarily.

This makes me crack a lame joke that pound is stronger than dollar. Though I have showed you how to become the root user, I must warn you that you should avoid using the system as root. You can use su command to switch users in Ubuntu. You can use it with sudo to temporarly switch to root user:. Linux gives you the freedom to do whatever you want with your system. Unlocking the root user is one of those freedoms.

If, for some reasons, you decided to enable the root user, you can do so by setting up a password for it:. I hope you have a slightly better understanding of the root concept now. If you still have some confusion and questions about it, please let me know in the comments. Also a movie buff with a soft corner for film noir. Thank you so much for that you do for Ubuntu Linux.