You must remember
and protect this password??”you will need it to log in as root or to obtain root permission
while you are logged in as some other user. Other Linux systems (such as KNOPPIX) start you
TIP
137
Learning Basic Administration 4
without an available root password, so you may want to add one when you first start up by typing
the following from a Terminal window or other shell:
# passwd root
Changing password for user root.
New UNIX password: ********
Retype new UNIX password: ********
Some bootable Linux distributions give you (as a regular user) the power to run commands
as root. You simply have to ask for the privilege using the sudo command. For
example, from a Terminal window, to open a shell as root, type the following:
$ sudo su -
#
You??™ll find out more about the sudo command later in this chapter.
The home directory for the root user is typically /root. The home directory and other information
associated with the root user account are located in the /etc/passwd file. Here??™s what the root
entry looks like in the /etc/passwd file:
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
This shows that for the user named root the user ID is set to 0 (root user), the group ID is set to 0
(root group), the home directory is /root, and the shell for that user is /bin/bash.
Pages:
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332