Explanations about the root account.

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What is root?

Root is the name of the most powerful account on a Debian installation. This user account can do everything on the machine. It's also known as supervisor, administrator.

It has uid?FootNote(uid is user identifier, a number which identifies all user accounts) 0 and gid?FootNote(gid is group identifier) 0.

Password

At installation time, you are been asked for creation or not of the root account.

• if you want so (the default), you'll be asked to provide a password for root. Use a strong one!

• if not, no root account is enabled and the password of the first user created will be used for administration tasks.

• If you forgot your password, read [http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch-tips.en.html#s-crackroot "I forgot the root password!"]

How to use root account

• Under Gnome : in Gnome Application Menu/Accessories/Root Terminal

• From console : read Debian Reference's [http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch-tutorial.en.html#s-login-root Login to a shell prompt as root]

• In a terminal, you can use ["su"] (or ["gksu"]) to change your identity to root, However, it's recommended to configure and use ["sudo"] (or gksudo) to run a given command. (read the manpages for more help.)

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