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Root is the name of the most powerful account on a Debian installation. The root user account can usually do everything on the machine. Root is also known as supervisor and administrator.

If Debian is installed and uses Discretionary Access Controls (DAC), then root is the user account that can do everything on the machine. If Debian is installed and uses SELinux, then root is just another account that can be constrained using Mandatory Access Controls (MAC).

A default Debian installation does not limit root user's privileges. However, constraining the root user is an old concept in operating systems. In addition to SELinux and Mandatory Access Controls, Solaris uses Role Based Access Controls (RBAC) to limit root's privileges. See, for example, the Oracle Solaris Administration Role-Based Access Control (Overview).

root has uid 0 and gid 0. Root's home (~) disrectory is /root.

Password

At installation time, you are asked whether you want to use the root account or not.

How to obtain root level access

You will need to obtain root on occasion for things like system administration and configuration changes. The following lists some of the ways to obtain root using various desktop and terminal programs.

When you change from a normal user to root, your prompt will change from user@mypc:~$ to root@mypc:/home/user# .
To find out as which user you're operating now, execute the command whoami.

Debian Live CD

If you try Debian using a Live CD, then you can use the username "user" and password "live" to login and elevate privileges.

The live user does not require a password to run commands using sudo:

# cat /etc/sudoers.d/live
user ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL


CategoryRoot | CategorySystemSecurity | CategorySystemAdministration