Root is the default name for system administrator in a *NIX system - a super user who can do anything and everything within the operating system. As a result, root login should be used with special care. While working with a root login, we can end up doing a lot of harm to our system as well as the data, accidentally.

Enabling the root account in ubuntu is rarely necessary. Almost everything you need to do as root of an Ubuntu system can be done via sudo or gksudo. If you really need a persistent root login, the best alternative is to simulate a root login shell using the following command... It is tested in ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala also.

By default, the root account password is locked in Ubuntu - Canonical neither supports nor advocates enabling the root account. This means that you cannot login as root directly or use the su command to become the root user. However, since the root account physically exists it is still possible to run programs with root-level privileges.

Ubuntu root access was blocked by default for GUI. For Enabling This you need to reset password for root.

One of the biggest security holes you could open on your server is to allow directly logging in as root through ssh, because any cracker can attempt to brute force your root password and potentially get access to your system if they can figure out your password.

Here you can see the default login screen for Ubuntu 8.10. You simply add username and password and you have access to the Desktop. Simple, however, as you will see there are many options that can go with this login process. If you will go to System/Administration and select Login Window you will find that you have a lot of options available for login.

Sudo which is su “do” allows a system administrator to delegate authority to give certain users (or groups of users) the ability to run some (or all) commands as root or another user while providing an audit trail of the commands and their arguments.sudo allows a permitted user to execute a command as the superuser or another user, as specified in the sudoers file.

Today I needed to reset a password on an Ubuntu system. While doing this, I was reminded of just how simple it is to get root access on a default install of Ubuntu. I wanted to share these steps on this blog to remind people that if someone has physical access to your Ubuntu system, they can get root access in just a few seconds.

If you're like me and work for a company who has many linux admins all logging into servers and then su'ing to root, you may find this tip beneficial. It is simply 3 lines that you add to root's .bash_profile which will keep separate history files for each admin that su's to root and the commands they ran. It will allow you to go back and see what the user did as root.