logging in as su - doesnt work because of no password

[Grav3Mind]

i tried to login as su - and it doesnt work with my password. please tell me im just a moron and im making a stupid mistake

[Shagbag]

'su' is a basic UNIX command to switch your user I'd. You can't login as su. You can only switch to being another user AFTER you have logged in as a user.

 

If you want to get root, either login as root in the first place or login as a non-privileged user and (in a terminal) invoke the su command appended with '-' ie. 'su -'.

[bonestonne]

there is no logging in as root. you can change your user privileges, as shagbag said, but its not a user account.

 

the only way to use root like that, would be to actually set a root password [could be the same as your account password] and to enter verbose mode from before you even boot the OS. its not a smart thing to do unless you know everything about what you need to get done.

 

in Ubuntu, you need to set the root password yourself, in most other distrobutions you have to set one during setup.

[zoomie]

I prefer to use su over sudo, so I set a new root password to enable use of su. When I did that, I noticed that on the GUI Login screen, I was presented with "Other..." as a user. After clicking on "Other..." you can enter "root" as a username and enter its password. Then you get the OSX gui as the root user. I never use the gui for root, but its nice to know I at least have the option. I still prefer su from the command line for system administration stuff.

 

To set the root password, you can type sudo su Then when prompted, enter your user password. Then type passwd You'll then be prompted to enter a new root password, and again for confirmation. Then the next time you type su, you're all set.