Root password for Ubuntu 22.04.3

[Adam37]

Hi - I created a VM for Ubuntu and I am having issues doing what I am indenting to use it for, even when running a sudo command as parallels user with my password.

I can see there is a root user (by using sudo cat /etc/passwd) but no matter what password I use I can't log as root (my password or parrallels as the password).

Any ideas?

 

[Macintosh Rescue]

The root account is present but disabled by default. To get it going providing your user account works correctly with sudo should be as simple as:

$ sudo passwd root

Enter your current user password when prompted, then the new root password you'd like to set with the following prompts.
I'm not sure if you can login graphically with root, but you can try $ su #followed by your new root password when prompted, or something like $ sudo login # then login as user root.

...another way is to switch to a virtual terminal with the key combination control + option + F3 , and once done you can return to the graphical environment with: control + option + F1 .

Hope you get it going OK.

 

[AnietieA]

The root account is present but disabled by default. To get it going providing your user account works correctly with sudo should be as simple as:

$ sudo passwd root

Enter your current user password when prompted, then the new root password you'd like to set with the following prompts.
I'm not sure if you can login graphically with root, but you can try $ su #followed by your new root password when prompted, or something like $ sudo login # then login as user root.

...another way is to switch to a virtual terminal with the key combination control + option + F3 , and once done you can return to the graphical environment with: control + option + F1 .

Hope you get it going OK.

This solution worked for me in January 2025. In my case though, the OS didn't prompt for current password, it asked for new password instead. I hope others looking to resolve this same problems can find this.