A way to mess up recovery mode logins! Comments please?

[Phillip Susi]

Colin Watson wrote:
> 
> There's nothing wrong with wanting to set a root password.
> 

There is no reason to set a root password.  If you need root privileges, 
use sudo.  The only time you ever need to login as root is in single 
user mode, and then you don't want to have to remember a root password. 
  Having a root password there also does nothing for security because 
anyone who can boot to single user mode can just as easily bypass 
logging in completely.

> 
> The root password is locked to start with, and yet recovery mode works
> there.
> 

Maybe my system is a bit different because I didn't install in the usual 
way due to using unsupported sata fakeraid, but I have NO root password, 
so if I switch to a text terminal, I can login as root just fine.  This 
behavior makes sense to me for a typical single user desktop install.

> 
> "No root password" is the same as "locked root account", except for the
> precise details of the locking.
> 

No, there is a HUGE difference.  In the former case anyone can login as 
root ( on a secure terminal ), in the latter, nobody can.