Changing the Ubuntu default root password

The most frequent question which most users who have installed Ubuntu ask, is “What is the default root password“? While installing Ubuntu you don’t get any such option of specifying the root and normal user passwords separately..All that you entered was a username and a corresponding password.

Firstly one can access Ubuntu through the root account using 2 methods :
1) Graphical – In the initial login screen you can specify the username as root.
2) Command Line – In the terminal one can type ‘su’ and you will be prompted to enter the password.
But the problem is that at both the above mentioned places, if you enter your normal user password it wont accept it..And you did not specify the root password anywhere during the installation… Here’s the fix…

• Open the terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal)
• Type ‘sudo bash’
• You will be prompted to enter a password. Enter your normal login password.
• Now you have logged in as root in the terminal. Type ‘passwd’ to change the root password.
• Now it will prompt you to Enter the desired root password. Then it will ask you to re-enter the password.
• Voila…! If you entered both the passwords correctly, you have now successfully changed your root password.
• Now type exit to return back to using Ubuntu as a normal user.
• So now if you want to access the root account you can use either of the 2 methods mentioned above( Graphical or Command Line) by using the new root password..

But beware, the root user (also known as superuser), is a user on Ubuntu Linux and Unix-like systems with full administrative privileges (full access). So using root account for daily work can be very dangerous and you may damage your working system.
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