Question on the "superuser"

[Leonard Chatagnier]

--- lu sy <bakut2002 at yahoo.com.sg> wrote:

> Hi 
>    
>   During the installation of ubuntu, i was asked to
> set my username and password. Does this mean that
> this is the password for the "superuser"? 
>    
>   Every time I log in using this username and
> password, does this make me the superuser? Does this
> mean that when i am in the Terminal, i am already at
> the "root" ?
>    
>   I am the only person using this computer.
> 
Hi lu sy,
No, it's not your su, superuser, password. You don't
have a default su account in Ubuntu unless you setup
one.  However, the username and password you gave in
the install process allows you default admin and su
privileges via sudo. To get this su privilege you type
sudo before any command needing root privilege and it
will ask for your password before executing the
command, ie., the password you gave for install.
You can always tell, from a CLI, if you are in a user
or root account, by the prompt.  A user account has a
"$" at the end of the prompt whereas a root account
ends with a "#".
Remember whenever you log in with your username and
password as set in the install you are logging in as
that user, not root. To be logged in as root you have
to setup a root account and give a different password
which Ubuntu discourages for safety reasons. 
Otherwise use the sudo command(man sudo) to gain
temporary root privilege.
HTH,

Leonard Chatagnier
lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net