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Become the Root User and Select a Password

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Stephanie Richards
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Learn how to become the root user and create a password for the root account.

To perform certain administrative functions on your server (e.g. installing packages), you'll need to have a high level of user access. On Linux servers, this access is called "root".

Requirements

Instructions

Setting the root password

First, establish an SSH connection to your server with your default user.

At the command line, set a password for the root user (for security reasons, the password will not be shown as you type it):

~$ sudo passwd root
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully.

 

Update the system (Debian/Ubuntu)

To update the installed software packages on your server, type the following command at the command line:

~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

 

Update the system (CentOS/Fedora)

To update your server's operating system, type the following command at the command line:

~$ sudo yum update

 

Become root

To become the root user, type the following command at the command line:

~$ sudo su -
~#

 

Enable root login and password authentication

For connections via the built-in VNC console in the OVHcloud Control Panel

First, set the root password.

Next, from the OVHcloud Control Panel:

  1. Select Public Cloud.
  2. Click Instances.
  3. Click the more options ... button next to the corresponding instance.
  4. Select Instance details.

become_root01.png

Switch to the tab VNC console.

If you cannot see the console, scroll to the bottom of the page and select Open in a new window.

At the command prompt, enter your login as root, then enter your password.

become_root02.png

 

For connections using Linux terminals

First, set the root password.

Next, enable root login and password authentication in your sshd_config file:

~$ sudo sed -i 's/#PermitRootLogin prohibit-password/PermitRootLogin yes/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

~$ sudo sed -i 's/PasswordAuthentication no/PasswordAuthentication yes/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Restart the SSH service:

~$ service sshd restart

Once done, you should be able to access your server with the root user and password set.

 

For connections using Putty

First, set the root password.

Next, enable root login and password authentication in your sshd_config file:

~$ sudo sed -i 's/#PermitRootLogin prohibit-password/PermitRootLogin yes/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

~$ sudo sed -i 's/PasswordAuthentication no/PasswordAuthentication yes/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Restart the SSH service:

~$ service sshd restart

In the Putty authentication agent (pageant key list), remove your private SSH key.

become_root03.png

Once done, you should be able to access your server with the root user and password set.

 

Go further

For more information and tutorials, please see our other Public Cloud support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.

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