root password

[MrKnisely]

Dennis Kaarsemaker wrote:

>On zo, 2005-09-25 at 12:47 -0400, MrKnisely wrote:
>  
>
>>Yes, "sudo su" "sudo -i"  and other methods work...  but I still like
>>to 
>>BE root. 
>>    
>>
>
>With sudo -i you ARE root.
>  
>
Per sudo's man:

-i The -i (simulate initial login) option runs the shell specified in
the passwd(5) entry of the user that the command is being run as.
The command name argument given to the shell begins with a - to
tell the shell to run as a login shell. sudo attempts to change to
that user’s home directory before running the shell. It also ini‐
tializes the environment, leaving TERM unchanged, setting HOME,
SHELL, USER, LOGNAME, and PATH, and unsetting all other environment
variables. Note that because the shell to use is determined before
the sudoers file is parsed, a runas_default setting in sudoers will
specify the user to run the shell as but will not affect which
shell is actually run.

Again, you are you... you've just run a login for root and you are still 
giving your password. You are you, you just have a root shell with 
root's environment. It's close, just no cigar.

I want to login as root. When I choose to terminal into a box, I don't 
want to need to think about if my terminal is root or not. Yes, I know 
that the command line give it away with a simple look, but for those of 
us who live at the command line, it's just not the same.

When you want to use the system as you, login as yourself. When you want 
to administer a system, login as root.

Now, I'm not saying that the way Ubuntu is setup is wrong. For most 
people I know who are starting to work with Linux, it makes a lot of 
sense. For workstations that seldom will people be in the system as root 
it works. For me, it's an unnecessary pain which I remedy with a simple 
"sudo passwd root."

MrKnisely