How to enable root in Ubuntu 12.04

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root is the top administrator account in linux. You can do whatever you want to do while you logged in from root account. This causes security risk. Even a small mistake in file system can crash entire OS.You could type a command incorrectly and destroy the system.

So Ubuntu developers made a conscientious decision to disable the administrative root account by default in all Ubuntu installations. This does not mean that the root account has been deleted or that it may not be accessed. It merely has been given a password which matches no possible encrypted value, therefore may not log in directly by itself.

As a network administrator you may need to enable root account in several circumstances. In this tutorial we would enable root account in Ubuntu 12.04.

During the installation of Ubuntu we need to create one user account. By default this account has permission to run sudo command with his own password. Log in from this account.

We need Terminal to execute commands. Click on Ubuntu button, type terminal in search box and click on terminal icon. Alternatively you can launch terminal directly by pressing ALT+CTRL+T key combination.

Set password for root account. Run following command

sudo passwd root

Just remember, when sudo asks for a password, it needs YOUR USER password. And when it say Enter new UNIX password enter the password which you set for root account.

root account is enabled. Now we need to enable login option. Run following command

sudo sh -c 'echo "greeter-show-manual-login=true" >> /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf'

Reboot the system and Login from root

While you logged from root account in Ubuntu 12.04 username will show Guest in notification area.

You can confirm from terminal that you logged in as root account. Open terminal and run who am i command

While logged in from root account several services like google chrome, sound would not run. Please check our other articles from Ubuntu 12.04 tips and tricks to enable these services for root account.

If you wish to disable root account again follow these steps.

Reboot system Logged in from the account which you have created during the installation process

run following command

sudo passwd -dl root

Reboot system again and try to login from root.

Enabling the Root account is rarely necessary. Almost everything you need to do as administrator of an Ubuntu system can be done via sudo or gksudo.