Member Avatar for alaa sam

hi everyone
I have been using ubuntu for a while and I have recently switched to ubuntu 11.10
well I can't find the root terminal also su command always gives me authorization failure and I don't know why . So any help??
Thanks in advance

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Short summary and up-to-date clarification for and others who answered: Ubuntu does not set a usable root password by default, so running su will fail with “authorization failure” unless the root account is enabled first. That is intentional: desktop Ubuntu uses sudo for administrative actions rather than leaving an always-loginable root account. (help.ubuntu.com)

If a persistent root account is required (rare for a desktop), set a root password from an account that already has sudo rights. Example:

sudo passwd root

After that su will authenticate with the password you set. Enabling root increases risk (brute-force targets, accidental damage), so prefer sudo for routine tasks and only enable root when there is a clear need. (help.ubuntu.com)

For graphical “root terminal” use: older advice pointed at gksu/gksudo, but those helpers have been deprecated/removed in newer Ubuntu releases. Modern alternatives are to use polkit/pkexec or flavour-specific helpers (or use editors that support admin:// via GVFS). If you need to run a GUI editor as admin, polkit is the supported route today. (help.ubuntu.com)

Practical guidance tying the replies together: the posts from , , and are on the right track — Ubuntu expects you to use sudo for single commands and a root shell only for extended maintenance. If you must enable root, do so deliberately and lock it again when finished. The Ubuntu Community docs offer a concise summary of these trade-offs and the safe ways to run GUI tools as admin. (help.ubuntu.com)

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Member Avatar for rubberman

For root access, try "sudo su", or "sudo su -". The first preserves your environment variables, the second does not.

Member Avatar for CimmerianX

For root, you can also do 'sudo -i'.

Member Avatar for alaa sam

Thanks a lot but does this mean that there's no root terminal in ubuntu 11.10

Member Avatar for rubberman

Thanks a lot but does this mean that there's no root terminal in ubuntu 11.10

Don't know. Don't use 11.10, though I installed it in a VM on my system at home in order to answer another question about 11.10. You can enable root logins if that is what you mean, but somehow I don't think so. Myself, when I used earlier versions (7.04, 8.04, 9.04, and 10.10) I didn't even look for a "root terminal". It never occurred to me that such a thing existed... :-)

Member Avatar for JasonHippy

Personally I use sudo on the command line for most administrative tasks on my Debian/Ubuntu based installs. Except if I have a lot to do, in which case I'll switch to root using sudo su .

You can open a root terminal using the command gksudo gnome-terminal In older versions of Ubuntu (10.10 and earlier) there used to be a launcher for the root terminal which you could add/enable in the system menu using the old gnome menu editor (alacarte). But since the shift from Gnome 2 to Unity from 11.04 onwards, I don't know if there is a launcher directly available (I'm not a fan of Unity, I use Xfce or Openbox as my default WM now!).

If the default key combination 'Alt F2' still brings up the 'run' dialog, you could use that to enter the command: gksudo gnome-terminal This should prompt you for your password. Then, if you entered your password correctly a root terminal session will be opened.

Otherwise, if the 'Alt F2' shortcut doesn't work any more (I've not used Unity very much, so I'm not that familiar with it. Did I mention I don't like it? Heh heh! ), you could try opening that new fangled 'dash' thing in the top left and then type the command in there!

And that should be OK for occasional use, but if you want to use a root terminal often and you don't want to type the command every time; you could try creating a 'Quicklist' for the terminal.

In Unity, a 'Quicklist' is kinda like an enhanced launcher which contains several contextual items, so you could have an option to open a normal terminal session, a root terminal session, open a session and run a command/script...Basically anything you want!

Again, I'm not familiar with Unity or the process of creating Quicklists. I'm just aware that they exist. However, there are detailed instructions for creating a Terminal Quicklist in Unity here:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/35488/what-custom-launchers-and-unity-quicklists-are-available
NOTE: The bit you want is a little way down the page. Open the link in your browser and then use your browsers text search tool to find 'Terminal Quicklist' and you'll be taken to the relevant part of the page.

Hope that's of some use to you!

Edited by JasonHippy because: n/a
Member Avatar for L7Sqr

Supposing you have sudo abilities, just open the terminal you are most used to and enter sudo bash . Root shell session. Feel free to substitute bash with your favorite shell, of course.

Member Avatar for alaa sam

Thanks a lot JasonHippy for help , thanks to all of you guys

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