I know how to enable root account on Mac OS X Leopard, but not Snow Leopard or newer OS X versions. How can I do it?
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4Why do you want to enable it? There's nothing I do that I can't just as conveniently do with sudo.– David ThornleyCommented Sep 21, 2009 at 17:00
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1Sometimes even Apple tells you to enable the root user for some administrative tasks that are just easier using root: support.apple.com/kb/HT1428– ArjanCommented Oct 23, 2009 at 8:36
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5 Answers
The steps are covered in the article Enable root account in Snow Leopard and this Apple support page. Directory Utility is accessible through System Preferences on all versions of OS X since 10.6.
- Go to System Preferences » Users & Groups, then click the padlock. Enter your password.
- Click Login Options, then Join… in the right pane
- In the new window, click Open Directory Utility…
- From the Edit menu, select Enable Root User.
- Select Change Root Password from the Edit menu and type in the new root password.
- Click the padlock icon to lock the application again.
If you need a full root shell and find sudoing cumbersome, you can do:
sudo su -
That will give you a normal UID 0 shell to play with.
answered Sep 21, 2009 at 17:29
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1I do it this way on the linux boxes I use too. There is no reason to have a root account anymore.– salCommented Oct 23, 2009 at 13:45
Run in Terminal.app:
dsenableroot
source: http://commandlinemac.blogspot.com/2008/12/another-way-to-enable-and-disable-root.html
Reference this link, do as follows:
How to Enable the Root User Account in Mac OS X
Terminal user can make it like this:
dsenableroot #enable
dsenableroot -d #disable
Type sudo passwd then su - will work with the new password.
