MX Linux Forum

Trying to apply the 'updates available' needs a password to unlock the 'default' keyring.
The only password setup during the installation of MX 14 is not the correct one.
Is there a root password and if so, where is it configured in MX 14 installation?

When you installed, you had to set up both username/password and a root passowrd. The installer would have failed if you didn't enter a root password.

the mx installer asks you to set up two passwords. 1 for the user, and one for root. the password being asked for is the root password, which you should have set up on the same screen in the installer as the user password.

if you need to reset the root password, try this
which will first ask for the USER password, then ask for anew unix password, which will be the new root password.

Huh. Doesn't that make an installation awfully vulnerable to hijacking?

maybe, but you can already use sudo for just about anything.

Thanks All. I did the installation but don't remember a root password being asked for...probably did a memory reset somewhere along the way?....but going into terminal and resetting root as suggested is all I need to solve my problem.

Jerry3904 wrote:Huh. Doesn't that make an installation awfully vulnerable to hijacking?

If someone has physical access and knows the user password, then it's already game over.

Jerry3904 wrote:Huh. Doesn't that make an installation awfully vulnerable to hijacking?

It requires physical access. And the user's password. With physical access alone, an intruder could reboot into a liveCD/USB and change whatever they want on the installed system.

This goes back to the "su" versus "sudo" debate. If a system is set up to use "su" instead of "sudo" then the root password is required to work on the system. With "sudo" only a user password is required (depending on how sudo is set up). The sudo approach is much more flexible and is usually considered to be more secure, especially if you have multiple users. You can easily allow users to have passwordless access to run certain command as root but still be locked out of getting root privileges in general.

Ninja'ed by uncle mark.

If you don't remember your root password, then "sudo anything" won't work. But you can reset a lost root password by logging in single-user mode or resetting the password file through a boot disk. See those procedures here: http://linuxgazette.net/107/tomar.html

Of course, these methods require physical access to the machine, and as others point out, physical access gives a hacker almost unlimited access (unless the HDD is encrypted).

Obligatory xkcd cartoon.

cearlp wrote:Thanks All. I did the installation but don't remember a root password being asked for...probably did a memory reset somewhere along the way?....but going into terminal and resetting root as suggested is all I need to solve my problem.

Thanks guys the advice on how to set root password was easily found and implemented.

In my case it was my own aging memory did the reset as soon as I inserted the root password on the newly installed MX15 non pae

Regards

BitJam wrote:

Jerry3904 wrote:...
This goes back to the "su" versus "sudo" debate. If a system is set up to use "su" instead of "sudo" then the root password is required to work on the system. With "sudo" only a user password is required (depending on how sudo is set up). The sudo approach is much more flexible and is usually considered to be more secure, especially if you have multiple users. You can easily allow users to have passwordless access to run certain command as root but still be locked out of getting root privileges in general.
Ninja'ed by uncle mark.

Hi,
4 years after I have exactly the same question (with MX17) ... I think the root password is not needed too (with sudo).
So why the choose of keeping into MX17 the root login and passwd, for a specific behavior?

cearlp wrote:... needs a password to unlock the 'default' keyring.

Guys, within your answers you seem to have overlooked the magic word "keyring" within the OP posts.
This happens when a user have saved root-credentials within the gnome-keyring by clicking "Remember Password" and "Save in keyring" sometimes before.
The next time a root-password is needed the gnome-keyring will needed to be unlocked and issuing
the Popup "... to unlock the 'default' keyring".
I do have certainly some further comments about the issues which comes with gnome-keyring in addition the one mention by the OP's post.
But for now the work-around answer to sort this for the user is mentioned with the User Manual "2.6.3 Keyring problems".
ttfn

why the choose of keeping into MX17 the root login and passwd, for a specific behavior?

root account (uid0) must exist, but you are free to disable root user login.
MX follows the upstream debian default (which is "yes, enable use of root account")

here's an informative, quick 2-minute reading:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... r-security

I do have certainly some further comments about the issues which comes with gnome-keyring

You're saving those for a separate topic? Okay, I'll watch for it.

skidoo wrote:

I do have certainly some further comments about the issues which comes with gnome-keyring

You're saving those for a separate topic? Okay, I'll watch for it.

Yes, cerainly need to write some stuff down.

skidoo wrote:...root account (uid0) must exist, but you are free to disable root user login.
MX follows the upstream debian default (which is "yes, enable use of root account")
here's an informative, quick 2-minute reading:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... r-security

Yes thank you for the answer (the default behavior in Debian), for information I have already disabled the root user login (like into Ubuntu by default) but now, if I want to use for example the mx-tool packageinstaller then I have to do into a terminal: "sudo mx-packageinstaller" (does not work directly with the GUI menu and password) so it is no user friendly (so I maybe I am going to re-enable it?)
(MX-tools probably launch with gksu only ?... but should be launched with both: gksu or gksudo)