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First of all I'm new to Ubuntu. How do I gain Root privileges in Ubuntu Desktop 12.04? I installed to a usb stick to try it out. I love it! Now when I installed it on a VM, I don't have the same options as I did on the usb stick. Such as opening remote desktop, installing drivers, and some of the video capabilities. Any help will be appreciated.

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Info from help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo "By default, the Root account password is locked in Ubuntu. This means that you cannot login as Root directly or use the su command to become the Root user." Instead, use sudo... Example: help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo#sudo – mondjunge Aug 27 '12 at 12:25

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Their are 2 ways to do things with certain pemissions.

sudo lets you run commands in your own user account with root privileges.

su lets you switch user so that you're actually logged in as root. But this options is default disabled. Read this thread for more information.

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This should make you root after you enter your user's password, assuming you were the first account to be created. Be careful when you're root. Only login as root when you really need to, and logout as soon as you're done. 

sudo su -

Alternatively you can run specific commands with root privileges by prepending them with sudo. For example:

sudo cp -p foo bar/
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