Being root

[Amedee Van Gasse (Ubuntu)]

On Wed, June 24, 2009 17:03, Florian Diesch wrote:
> "Amedee Van Gasse (Ubuntu)" <amedee-ubuntu at amedee.be> wrote:
>
>
>> On Wed, June 24, 2009 12:09, bill wrote:
>>
>>> In unix I am used to logging on as root when I need to do a series of
>>>  administrative tasks, aware of the danger. New to linux, I haven't
>>> found a way of logging on as root or su'ing to root. When I installed
>>> I did not
>>> enter a root password and that makes it difficult to log in.
>>>
>>> How does one set the root password, or is this never done ?
>>>
>>
>> Normally Linux is the same as Unix, but Ubuntu is a special case: the
>> root password is encrypted, effectively disabling root. You need to use
>> sudo.
>
> Passwords are always encrypted. When doing password authentication the
> given password is encrypted and compared with the stored encrypted
> password. For root the encrypted password has a value the encryption
> function will never return so no password will ever match. That disables
> password authentication for root.

You did not understand what I wrote. It must be a language issue.
In Ubuntu they don't ask for a root password. A root password is
automatically created with some kind of random function. This random
password is never told to the user.

Perhaps you understand it better if I formulate it this way?