Questions tagged [root]

The name of the main administrative user commonly used in *nix based systems.

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576 votes
7 answers
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What is the "You have new mail" message in Linux/UNIX?

Sometimes, when I log into a box and 'su' to root, I get a cute little message saying I have mail (thank GOD it's not AOL). Where is this mail? What does it contain? Who/What sent it? How important ...
nopcorn's user avatar
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368 votes
10 answers
379k views

chown is not changing symbolic link

I'm trying to change the user/group of a symbolic link with the command: $ chown -h myuser:mygroup mysymbolic/ But it's not changing. I'm logged in as root. The current user/group is set to root:...
user avatar
90 votes
2 answers
19k views

Why is the most powerful user on a Unix/Linux system called “root?”

Somewhat inspired by this other question on the use of the term “Super User”, why the heck is the most powerful user on a Unix/Linux system called root? Why not admin, sysop, base, king or something ...
Giacomo1968's user avatar
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86 votes
4 answers
170k views

Does the root account always have UID/GID 0?

On all the Linux systems I've managed, the root account has a GID and UID of 0. Is this guaranteed, or is it possible that the system will give root a different ID?
Tanaki's user avatar
  • 1,437
71 votes
3 answers
184k views

Force logout a user

I When I logged into the machine as root and typed who to see which users are logged in, I found somebody else too logged in as root devuser pts/0 2011-11-18 09:55 (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) root ...
Mithun Sreedharan's user avatar
54 votes
2 answers
7k views

Where did the term "superuser" originate?

Where did the term "superuser" originate? Is it a shortening of "supervisory user", or is it just an indicator of the level of power one such user holds in a system?
VortixDev's user avatar
  • 1,214
53 votes
5 answers
44k views

Sudo vs root; any actual differences?

I'm working with a support member for a product, and he insists that I need to be root to install a series of patches, and that sudo won't work; he doesn't provide a reason but seems very firm in his ...
Ranger's user avatar
  • 703
52 votes
6 answers
160k views

How to check root partition with fsck?

I installed Linux Mint 12 KDE, and I would like to check the root partition for any errors. How do I check the root partition with fsck at boot time?
BlueSky's user avatar
  • 523
51 votes
7 answers
143k views

Where's .bashrc for root?

I know it's not best practice, but on my dev system I login as root. What's the equivalent of the .bashrc file so I can alias some functions? I've found the /etc/bash.bashrc & /etc/bash.bashrc....
mbb's user avatar
  • 2,536
46 votes
2 answers
71k views

Can I create an SSH user which can access only certain directory?

I have a Virtual Private Server which I can connect to using SSH with my root account, being able to execute any linux command and access all the disk area, obviously. I would like to create another ...
Frantisek's user avatar
  • 1,926
42 votes
4 answers
83k views

How to determine the user and group of a daemon in Ubuntu?

How can I check the user and group for the nginx daemon in Ubuntu? Or what's the syntax to find the user and group for a daemon running in Ubuntu?
Prakash Moturu's user avatar
40 votes
6 answers
87k views

How do I make sudo ask for the root password?

When I run sudo as a normal unprivileged user, it asks for my password, not the root password. That's often convenient, but it reduces the amount of information someone would have to have in order to ...
David Z's user avatar
  • 6,705
37 votes
3 answers
150k views

Creating files and directories with a certain owner (user/group) while sudoing

I need to wget something (results in a compressed file in cwd), then I have to extract it, then do some copy/move/modification stuff and perhaps finally execute an script (from the downloaded archive)....
Ashkan Kh. Nazary's user avatar
36 votes
4 answers
36k views

removing write permission does not prevent root from writing to the file

I just noticed on my Ubuntu machine (ext3 filesystem) that removing write permissions from a file does not keep root from writing to it. Is this a general rule of UNIX file permissions? Or specific ...
laramichaels's user avatar
35 votes
5 answers
64k views

How do I run a launchd command as root

I have the following launchctl command as a .plist file. It's loaded and set to run once a day but, it needs to run as root and I'm not sure how to verify this. Also, this cron job basically CDs ...
Emmanuel Mwangi's user avatar
32 votes
4 answers
84k views

Can I make a script always execute as root?

How to make a script execute as root, no matter who executes it? I read about setuid but I'm not sure how to do this. I'm using Linux, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
HappyDeveloper's user avatar
28 votes
3 answers
12k views

sudo command trying to search for hostname

Recently, I have changed the sudoers file and the hostname through /etc/hostname. After changing this files, my sudo command is taking a lot of time. Also, it says sudo unable to resolve host kaagini(...
prathmesh.kallurkar's user avatar
26 votes
5 answers
111k views

Synology DSM - Can't log as root (but works with admin)

After some automatic updates (or being hacked?) I have many things broken and a huge problem to resolve them since I can't login as root anymore. ssh admin: login success su root: permission denied (...
user2668735's user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
23k views

How to disable WSL password?

I feel there is no need for a password on WSL because it is already protected from my Windows account. Nobody could use my WSL without first knowing my Windows password. How can I disable the WSL ...
nowox's user avatar
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25 votes
4 answers
3k views

Why is it possible to change the password of an admin user on linux?

A few days ago, a friend of mine, wanted to show me that he can use my linux even if I don't tell him my password. He entered in GRUB, selected the recovery mode option. My first problem is that he ...
Ilea Cristian's user avatar
25 votes
9 answers
223k views

User not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported

I need to install a package. For that I need root access. However the system says that I am not in sudoers file. When trying to edit one, it complains alike! How am I supposed to add myself to the ...
Sergiy Belozorov's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
69k views

How can I make my own account a sudoers on VirtualBox?

I have Windows 10 installed on my computer. I installed Oracle VirtualBox and created a machine with Ubuntu 20.04. I need administrative privileges on this machine but, for some reason, I cannot have ...
Alessandro Ruggieri's user avatar
19 votes
5 answers
128k views

Set password for root on virtualbox ubuntu

I loaded ubuntu into virtualbox. It all works well but it occurred to me that I was not asked (or did not setup) a root password. I want to use root on occasion, but I cannot seem to find out how to ...
rtfminc's user avatar
  • 333
18 votes
7 answers
39k views

apt-get update not working: Signing/ Verification errors

When I run apt-get update I get Ign:1 http://dl.google.com/linux/musicmanager/deb stable InRelease Ign:2 http://archive-4.kali.org/kali kali-rolling InRelease Hit:3 http://archive-4....
Zach's user avatar
  • 181
17 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is PermitRootLogin based on UID or user name?

The man page states that PermitRootLogin Specifies whether root can log in using ssh(1). However, it is not clear if this check is based on the user name ("root") or the UID (0). What happens if ...
ge0rg's user avatar
  • 271
17 votes
4 answers
23k views

Can't install Parallels Tools on Debian 7.2.0

(Parallels Desktop 9, latest version) As per instructions, I switch to root: $ su - root $ whoami root $ echo $EUID 0 and then execute the installer: $ cd /media/cdrom0 $ ./install and I get this ...
jstm88's user avatar
  • 1,053
17 votes
3 answers
28k views

UNIX - mount: only root can do that

I need to allow a non-root user to mount/unmount a device. I am a total noob when it comes to UNIX, so please dumb it down for me. I've been looking all over teh interwebz to find an answer and it ...
Travesty3's user avatar
  • 553
17 votes
3 answers
101k views

Linux / Folder and /root folder

I searched now a while but couldn't find an answer to this question. I have a Linux based server (centOs). In the root folder (/) i have a folder called root (/root). Now when I sudo cd root/ i ...
Getter Jetter's user avatar
17 votes
6 answers
36k views

What is different between root and sudo?

A root user can have all the privileges. But a normal user can gain access like a root with su or sudo command and their own password. So what's the difference?
Hieu Nguyen's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
30k views

How to get around this error when unTarring an archive “tar: Cannot change ownership to uid 1000, gid 1000: Operation not permitted”

When attempting to untar a file in a docker container with: tar -zvxf training.tar.gz -C data/multi30k I received the following error (train.de is a file within the .tar file): tar: train.de Cannot ...
Jacob Stern's user avatar
15 votes
4 answers
47k views

SSH key associated with root directory

In OSX (Linux), how do I get to the SSH keys with my root directory?
Spencer's user avatar
  • 281
15 votes
3 answers
18k views

How can I install DropBox without root privileges?

Is it possible to install Dropbox without root privileges in Linux? I've tried to install it at my university, using the sources found here, but I seem to need to enter the root password (which of ...
Manuel Araoz's user avatar
14 votes
5 answers
25k views

DDoS Virus infection (as a unix service) on a Debian 8 VM Webserver

I maintain a (fully updated) Wordpress for a student team on a Virtual Machine on ~okeanos service for a couple of years. Today, the helpdesk informed me that i am conducting DDoS attacks, which - of ...
pankgeorg's user avatar
  • 143
14 votes
3 answers
12k views

Adjusting $PATH in /etc/profile does not affect root

I added a directory to PATH in /etc/profile. This works for my user account but not for root. It's easy to add it to my /root/.bashrc but I would like to understand what's wrong. It's a mostly ...
techshack's user avatar
  • 151
14 votes
2 answers
7k views

Why should I really disable root ssh login?

I always read I should disable root login for SSH and login with a user which has sudo. But where is the difference between: ssh root@vps and ssh myuser@vps sudo -i I don't have physical access to ...
Brettetete's user avatar
  • 2,176
13 votes
7 answers
52k views

How to run a program as root without "sudo"?

I have a certain binary program on OS X that can only be run as root. I'm tired of prepending sudo each time I invoke it and typing the password, and would like it to automatically run as root when I ...
UrEl's user avatar
  • 841
12 votes
7 answers
6k views

Why is it bad to run as root?

I've often come across posts on forums or other websites where you see people joking in such a manner about running/logging in as root as if it's something awful and everyone ought to know about it. ...
Mussnoon's user avatar
  • 1,068
11 votes
4 answers
13k views

I just ran rm /* accidentally, any fix?

I fell so stupid... I just ran rm /* accidentally, but I meant rm ./* on a cloud server with root access. Now, no one command works. ls, ssh, sftp... none. Is there a way to fix that? (Note: params ...
mateussouzaweb's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
56k views

What's default root password for docker official Centos image

This is regarding Docker official Centos6 and Centos7 images There are 3 separate but related questions: (1) When started using "docker RUN centos", what is the root password and how to find it? (2)...
Tim's user avatar
  • 111
11 votes
2 answers
8k views

How to open a file in ranger as root?

How do I open a file in the file-manager "ranger" with superuser rights? While ":open_with vim" opens the file as none root with vim, I am looking for something like ":open_with sudo vim", but that ...
PatrickSteiner's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
63k views

CentOS 6.5 - bash: service: command not found

So I can't type service on my CentOS 6.5 server. I'm logged in as root. When typing service I get this error: bash: service: command not found I have also tried to type sudo service, but with no ...
user3524823's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
4k views

Is it possible to perform bind mount as a non-root user in an unshared namespace while preserving your UID and groups?

I want to run a process as my (non-root) user with an unshared bind mount. I can do this. $ unshare --mount --map-root-user mount --bind foo bar While this works, I am faking root in this context. I ...
Chewi's user avatar
  • 343
9 votes
4 answers
5k views

Ubuntu: Accidentally changed root user to nonexistent shell

I tried to change my user's shell, but used "sudo chsh", and changed the root shell to "bash" instead of "/bin/bash". Now when I try to change it I get "chsh: PAM authentication failed" and it seems ...
endolith's user avatar
  • 7,627
9 votes
1 answer
4k views

Debian - allow user to be root only for specific commands

We have several Linux boxes running Samba that are used 'locally', eg each branch gets their own Samba box to store and share files. The office managers need to be able to add and remove users for ...
Jake's user avatar
  • 418
9 votes
3 answers
8k views

Concern over running Wireshark as root

I started Wireshark on my Ubuntu machine and discovered that there were no interfaces I could listen to. So I launched it as root. This gave me access to all the interfaces, but gave me a warning: ...
Nathan Osman's user avatar
  • 2,762
8 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why is the dreadful 'rm -rf /' even allowed? [closed]

We all know the destructive power of the following command executed as root: rm -rf / Related questions: How far will you get with an 'rm -rf /' command? deleting everything: # rm -rf / I ...
Laurent Pireyn's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
7k views

Use another user's .vimrc and .vim/

I know that I can :source /path/to/some/.vimrc to load my user's .vimrc when running as root, but how can I use the entire .vim/ directory as well? Is there a startup option for using /home/user/.vim/ ...
dotancohen's user avatar
  • 11.5k
8 votes
4 answers
67k views

How to log in as root in linux shell?

How to login as root in linux shell?
user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
22k views

Xubuntu 16.04 ttyname failed Inappropriate ioctl for device

I have a need to launch Xubuntu as a root user for a stand-alone demo system. Whether I use the auto-login feature from lightdm, or when logging in via "Other" > "root" when prompted, I always get ...
boyashley's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
28k views

Are root password changes logged?

Long story short, after a recent company "reorg" the root password on all of our servers was mysteriously changed. I need to figure out first how to regain root access, but second how to figure out ...
Doug's user avatar
  • 183

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