Root password needed

[cearlp]

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?

[anticapitalista]

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.

[dolphin_oracle]

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

Code: Select all

$sudo passwd root

which will first ask for the USER password, then ask for anew unix password, which will be the new root password.

[Jerry3904]

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

[dolphin_oracle]

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

[cearlp]

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.

[uncle mark]

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.

[BitJam]

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.

[joany]

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).

[BitJam]

Obligatory xkcd cartoon.