I don’t know if I posted this in the right spot, but I cant login to the Terminal using the Root Password. I do “sudo su -” and it brings up the Root password Login. I type in the Root Password ( I have it written down and I used it yesterday to update my Laptop) and it says “Sorry, try again” Can anybody help me with this? (Keep in mind, this is my 2nd day Using the Linux Operating System in about 3 Years)
What happens if you leave off sudo?:
su -
It says “Authentication Problem”
Are you able to login if you reboot and at the boot (Grub) menu, use the e key to edit the kernel cmdline by appending “S” or “1”?
Same question but instead using “2” or “3”?
Which openSUSE version are you using?
Note that Linux is case sensitive so be sure the case of the password characters are right
Note also you use either **sudo *somecommand ***to execute a single command as root or su- to temporarily become root until you **exit **the terminal instance note both at the same time.
Also helps to know the version of openSUSE you are running things do change over time.
Please explain what you “updated” from and to. What EXACTLY did you do? Also what repositories do you have enabled? – show the output of “zypper lr -Eu”.
My guess is that you aouto-login to a graphical user session and have tried “sudo su -” in a terminal window (e.g. Konsole) rather than the full-screen text console. The “update” may have omitted some component of PAM. This could have happened by trying to “update” instead of “upgradiding” from one distribution/version to another.
If I am on the right track, the solution is to either:
Login to a root Bash shell from Grub
or
Use a bootable USB/CD/DVD Rescue/Live/Installation image
to perform a proper distribution upgrade (perhaps by means of “chroot” and “zypper dup”
More information is needed for detailed advice.
This is not necessarily the case. In a traditional Unix environment sudoers would be used to grant admins passwordless access to restricted commands (generally using the wheel, uucp, lp etc. groups). My own practice is to use a daily cron job to allocate random strong root passwords. If needed a system administrator can temporarily set a known password via “*sudo su - *”.
Note that in some cases, on some machines, you could have Numlock on in the GUI, but it is off in the terminal. Same goes for Caps Lock.
So, what gogalthorp says here is worth checking out.
Gerry,
Why do you constantly seek approbation? While this can be amusing in an infant, it is both annoying and embarrassing behaviour from an adult.
And yes I know that I am being a grumpy old man.
It’s just a reminder that he put in his forum signature, and that is then automatically appended to each post. It’s not as if he is actually writing that himself every time.
… just a friendly warning, as you help out a lot here.
This is actually an offensive and personal attack. If you had directed it at anyone else, I would have given you, at the very least, an infraction and would have deleted the post.
Saying so here so anyone else reading this thread will understand this should not be done on the forums, no matter who you address such things to.
THAT SAID:
Heh, heh, heh.
I swiped the idea from my friend Malcolm, thought it was a fun thing to do.
I will be sure to pass your comments along to him, then, as that is where I got the idea. lol!