Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Geek Speak => Topic started by: Titanscape on 25/08/2008 21:10:19

Title: Ubuntu Password Trouble
Post by: Titanscape on 25/08/2008 21:10:19

Hi, I have installed Ubuntu on my hard drive, and I am looking to write in a terminal, Compiz-Check but even though I know the password, and tried a lot, it would not accept my password after "su".

What can I do?

Title: Ubuntu Password Trouble
Post by: LeeE on 26/08/2008 19:34:52

Was it actually saying that the password you entered was incorrect?  If so, then you're not supplying the correct password.  If it does accept the password, but then fails to run the prog, can you run other commands as root? i.e. create a file in /root/ that only root has permissions to and then try to cat it from an ordinary user after su'ing.

Title: Ubuntu Password Trouble
Post by: Titanscape on 28/08/2008 09:29:55

Well it is a fresh install, there is only one password. I miss typed it at one point and saw it spelled out rightly, otherwise it is not shown. That is, I typed it in the su space, because it became a habit, I tried many times.

I will test the keyboard in a word processor.

Title: Ubuntu Password Trouble
Post by: LeeE on 29/08/2008 00:01:25

Sorry Titan, but you actually failed to answer any of my questions.

There should not just be one password - you need one for 'root' and another for a normal user (they should not be the same).  You obviously know the pw for your normal user, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to log in and wouldn't need to 'su' to run root commands, but then you need to know the root pw to get past 'su'.

Title: Ubuntu Password Trouble
Post by: nsbuk001 on 06/05/2010 14:36:54

Actually, with Ubuntu, you are rarely asked for a root password during installation.  Something that caught me out when I first started using it, after using Debian for years, which does.

Rather than trying to type su - in Ubuntu try

sudo -s -H

You will then be asked for a password and entering your own will normally suffice.  You will now be running with root priveleges.

Of course you should get into the habit of typing

sudo somecommand blah

when you need to run a command with root privs, and not using root at all when necessary.

That is the idea behind this arrangement.

Regards
Neil

Title: Ubuntu Password Trouble
Post by: djdave on 26/05/2010 11:12:28

Ubuntu has fixed this issue in Ubuntu 10.04 onwards.

Title: Ubuntu Password Trouble
Post by: nicephotog on 04/09/2010 09:18:55

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_(Unix)
su -
note the space1