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Ubuntu 10.10.i386 Cannot access Root

Asked by A N Turner

I am using Ubuntu 10.10.i386 in a virtual box. My machine will not support a newer version. As I am going through my Linux lessons I cannot access root. I am listed as the administrator but it displays that I need administrator access. There is only one account set up. Thanks. Amy

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Maverick is no longer supported in any way. It is EOL. Wy install a DEAD release? I suggest you reinstall with a fresh install of Precise. Not only is it the latest stable release, it is also LTS giving support until 2017.

In Ubuntu the root account is disabled. You don't need to access root either, you can simply use sudo and (assuming you are in the sudo group) you will be able to run administrative functions.

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Warren Hill (warren-hill) said : 		#2

Ubuntu does not use a root account by default. You can create one but its not recommended.

For terminal commands you can either prefix each command with "sudo" or you can use "sudo -i" to temporarily become root then "exit" to return to normal. You don't type the quotes

For example

fdisk -l

ran as a normal user does nothing because needs root privileges but

sudo fdisk -l

works

as does

sudo -i
fdisk -l
exit

The advantage of the second approach is that you can run multiple privileged commands without needing to type sudo each time

for graphical applications the command is "gksu" so for example

gksu nautilus

runs nautilus (the file manager) with root privileges.

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Mark Rijckenberg (markrijckenberg) said : 		#3

Please read this:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

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