How do I change from user to superuser (root)? What command do I use in the Terminal to switch to root? I have tried --help
but I get lost with all the listed help. I'm looking for a recent download/install so I can use it.
4 Answers
Launch an instance of your terminal (press CTRL+ALT+T or search for "terminal" in the Dash). This will give you your normal shell from which you can run commands or programmes without root access.
To get root access, you can use one of a variety of methods:
Run
sudo <command>
and type in your login password, if prompted, to run only that instance of the command as root. Next time you run another or the same command without thesudo
prefix, you will not have root access.Run
sudo -i
. This will give you an interactive root shell. Note that the$
at the end of your prompt has changed to a#
, indicating that you have root access. But you fall in the root home directory (/root/
). From here you can run any sequence of commands as root, or run the commandexit
to leave the root shell.Use the
su
(substitute user) command to get a root shell. This is effectively the same as usingsudo -i
. Note that when you use this command it will ask for the root password and not your login password. These are not the same. You may have to set or change the root password by runningsudo passwd root
first.Run
sudo -s
. This gives you root access, but maintains your current SHELL. Shell specific settings, including your current directory, are preserved. For instance if you usebash
(Ubuntu's default shell), aliases (and any other settings from~/.bashrc
) are kept when you switch to the root user. To leave the root access, typeexit
as in the cases above.
Be advised that playing around with root access is dangerous, and if you had to ask about root access, you probably shouldn't have the privilege. You have the potential to completely ruin your entire system with the mis-execution of many commands. Be careful and verify what you are doing before you do it. Google is Search engines are your friends.
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7your answer is wrong:
sudo -s
will give you an interactive root shell at your current directory. and it is not completely equal tosu
(different $HOME). --sudo -i
gives you a complete root environment! -- see askubuntu.com/q/418122/354350 Jul 29, 2017 at 1:07 -
2@DJCrashdummy you are totally correct, thanks for auditing this answer. Not sure why I wrote that
sudo -i
drops you into a shell in your current directory... Must've been a late night on 3 May 2015, since that's obviously not true :) Answer updated. Aug 10, 2017 at 1:22 -
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1
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This is my way.
Open a terminal an run this command:
sudo su -
The command starts a login shell and you will find yourself in root's home directory with root's environment.
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6
su -
ask for passwordsu root
asks for password, but there is no root password made after live install.sudo su -
jumps right into root, wow. Dec 4, 2018 at 4:53 -
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1
You can use sudo -i
which will ask for your password. You need to be in the sudoers
group for that or have an entry in the /etc/sudoers
file.
Another way is the command su -
which will ask for the password of root, but accomplish the same.
Just type su -
You gone be asked for your password and after putting it in you'll be logged in as the root user