impossible su - root

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

hi everybody
i try lo login root using su - root and password and i get the message:
authentification failure!!
i didn’t change my password and i may login root using a normal session with the same password!
what happens?
can you help me?
Many thanks

#2

Not without more information.

  1. Which opensuse version;
  2. which desktop;
  3. what does “try to login root” actually mean? Are you doing this in a terminal session? Which terminal program?
  4. what does “normal session” mean? Is this a GUI login as root?
  5. What are the keyboard mappings being used? Maybe the keyboard is mapped differently for the two logins.
  6. Have you tried CTRL-ALT-F2 to get to a console text login session and have you tried a root login there?
#3

And in answering all the questions above, remind that saying “I try to …” is only telling some story to illustrate the background. Please show also the facts by copy/paste what you did into your posts (between CODE tags of course, that is the # button in the tool bar of the post editor). People can normaly only help with technical questions when the technical facts are presented to them.

E.g. I would do

henk@boven:~> su - root
Wachtwoord:
boven:~ #

which shows you and others how it works in my case. You should post likewise to show what happens in your case.

#4

thanks for your answer:

here is the context:

opensuse 13.1
KDE desktop

i open a cp,sole login and do:

thierry@linux-laptop:/> su - root
Mot de passe :
su: Échec d’authentification

when i try to login through the desktop login windows or when i open another session with root it works.

i tried CTRL-ALT-F2 : it doesn’t work (same error)

#5

So it’s only su that doesn’t work?
Have you tried sudo?

Maybe your su command has insufficient permissions.
What’s the output of this?

ls -l /usr/bin/su

It should look like this:

wolfi@linux-lf90:~> ls -l /usr/bin/su-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 31744 15. Sep 09:19 /usr/bin/su
#6

Judging from the response to the “su” command which is in French I suspect that the default keyboard is configured as French. If you add an English keyboard layout via Configure Destop>Input Devices>Layouts and switch to it using the bottom panel I believe your problem will disappear. You can toggle between the two layouts. I have the same problem with a Greek layout.

#7

hello

the result if ls -l /usr/bin/su is: -rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 31744 15 sept. 09:19 /usr/bin/su seems ok

i tried an english keyboard for the same result.
I just saw that 2 keys on my keyboard don’t work anymore :

the “right arrow” writes “h” instead and the “suppr” writes “—”
i have a problem!!!

#8

Only those 2 keys?
Doesn’t look like a hardware problem though, I’d say.

Do they work after you run this in the terminal?

setxkbmap fr

Do they work in a fresh user account?

#9

hello
setxkbmap fr does nothing

some keys of my numeric keyboard don’t work anymore.

must i reinstall opensuse???
is it a hardware problem?

thanks

#10

Who knows? Hard to tell over the internet…

Does it work in text mode?
Does it work on a fresh user account?

Do you have a different OS installed where you can try? If not, maybe use a LiveCD.

Run xev and see if it reports anything for those keys (and what).

PS: As you are now talking about the numeric keypad, have you pressed NumLock?

#11

Possibly a bad keyboard? Do you have a spare one you can try?

#12

i have more and more keys who don’t work anymore properly.
I tried another OS : Kali-Linux and i have the same problem.
An idea?
Thanks

#13

That sounds very much like a bad keyboard, however there’s a remote chance it could also be another hardware issue. Before you run out and buy a new keyboard try to borrow one for a quick test. If it works then buy a new one for yourself. If it doesn’t work I’d get really worried about your motherboard.