su: Authentication failure?

Posted Tue, 2009-11-03 01:29 by xxbeh84


xxbeh@wsLinux:~$ whoami
xxbeh
xxbeh@wsLinux:~$ su
Password:
su: Authentication failure

I am sure I remember the password I choosed at the start during the installation, on this way:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1581/media1208756461603.jpg

I told the system I am going to use xxbeh as login, and now while I try to change the user from xxbeh to root I get su: Authentication failure

‹ I can't find SUDU when in terminal Copy File Function in Linux Kernel ›

sudo

by alanrochester - 2009-11-03 12:08

Look at "RootSudo" on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

sudo

by alanrochester - 2009-11-03 12:08

Look at "RootSudo" on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

nice ...

by xxbeh84 - 2009-11-03 15:08

Thank you very much, but I don't remark the difference, it seems like I can do everything with the user I created at the beginning: xxheb!

change root password

by cybergsus - 2009-11-04 21:00

Hi!

I had the same prob. after a wile surching I found a fantastic solution :-)

open up your terminal and do:

solution 1

su
your xxbeh password
passwd
type new password and confirm

solution2

In Ubuntu, by default, there is not really a root user, but only root access which can be gained using sudo, for instance, to update your repository list:

:~$sudo apt-get update

Root is created without predefined password, it does not have a password, but it does not have an empty password either, you just can't login!!!

solution 3

:~$ sudo sh
Password:
sh-3.1#

solution 4

Launch a shell as root. Therefore, using sudo you can type:

~$ sudo passwd
Password:
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:

so easy when you know ;-)

best regards
Nic

nice ...

by sweetwater - 2010-03-31 05:15

Sounds like you are running as root all the time if you can do anything without having to do a special login for privileges...Maybe you did something at install time to allow this [tho not sure that is possible] however I'm not an advanced enough user to give you any possibilities to work with here.
I've been getting the same
'....Password: su: Authentication failure' when I try to use super user. And I didn't understand anything that was said in this post as being about fixing it. It seemed like a bunch of work around behaviour.
I know I set mine up correctly at installation and I believe something happened during installation or after fact that disallows me su privileges. Not sure if I should have started nuthur thread for this but if no help here I guess I will. So anyone pleeez chime in and let us know how to allow su privileges as they were suppose to be there from beginning? Thanx %:))SW
It happens in 9.04-10.04 most of the time.
Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.