[HOWTO] - Enable Root Login to Mac OSX

[Gwailo]

Once you're logged into the terminal as yourself, on the command line just type

su root

it will then prompt for root password. This way you can login as root remotely (or lcoally) without enabling root. Also unlike sudo you can perform commands at the shell, without just passing commands as argument (which is my understanding of sudo).

[Gwailo]

[96.9]

sudo passwd root

Then there is a prompt for a new password . The root account is setup at factory install without a password so all you have to do is type one in to enable it .

su root

Then enter the password you choose .

You can check your commands if you forget them , just type :

history

You can add new users from the terminal .

Check out the darwinfo faq

http://www.darwinfo.org/faq.shtml

Scroll down to User Management on the faq .

You just have to use 000 for uid and gid to make the new user have root privilages.

[MDLarson]

OK, totally new Mac OS X guy here;

I created two users initially, and now I just want to have one user. So I deleted the second user and assigned it to "Administrator", not "Matt Larson". So the user is deleted, but the folder is now labeled "username Deleted", and the root is the owner.

As a total newbie, could somebody post very explicit instructions for getting rid of this folder? Sounds like messing with the root access is a little dangerous.

-Matt
edit: red text added!

[Gwailo]

Hey Matt,

I had the same problem when I messed up my installation of MySQL.

type the following in terminai:

cd /Users
ls {you should now see the folder "username Deleted"}
rm -r "username Deleted"

You need the quotations marks around he "username Deleted" because it's more than one word (argument) for the rm command. If you don't it'll just look for the folder called 'username' and won't find it.

Now it's gone. BTW now it's GONE, not in the trash...no way to undelete that I know of without special utilities.

HTH

[96.9]

To do all the heavy stuff you need root access .

Get used to using su root and then su back to your regular user name .

Do the heavy stuff when you aernt online , wait until you are finsihed and everything works well than you can go back to regular user and surf safe .

You need root access to chmod and such and thats how you get lots of OS X true power , file permissions for making shell scripts executable and such .

Just get used to using terminal , get a bunch of info off the web , copy to your dektop the webpages you like and study the unix filesystem basics . University used bookstores have some great sales on quality unix and C programming books . It's easy to learn but it takes time to get used to remebering how it all works .

I use terminal for everything now , when you get to an intermediate level you will figure out how to config X 11 and a windows manager of your choice . OS X is a true BSD in the fact its hard to figure out . If you have an old PPC computer or an X86 IBM clone try out suse linux . A basic suse linux user can setup X 11 and a windows manager . I am finding with Aqua and the funky way apple setup OS X it is just like learning a whole new operating system . Its as hard as Open BSD is to learn , free BSD is s simple setup to get er rocking ( just gotta read the manual and copy website info to your box for further reading ) .

Have fun :

96.9

[MDLarson]

Here's an interesting message:
_________________________
Welcome to Darwin!
[localhost:~] mdlarson% cd /Users
[localhost:/Users] mdlarson% sudo rm -r "rjlarson Deleted"

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these two things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.

Password:
_________________________

I tried typing in a password, but the cursor didn't move.

[blb]

Originally posted by MDLarson
...
I tried typing in a password, but the cursor didn't move.

That's normal, and done for security reasons (so nobody can look over your shoulder to get your password). Be sure to use your password, and not root's (if root is enabled).