Superuser password?

[supanatral]

First of all, I wanted to say that my user has administrative privileges to the computer and is the only user on the computer currently.

Sometimes when I try to change some setting files or do something like that, it tells me that I don't have the privileges even though I'm using my user account with full access. So my next idea is to use superuser (su) in terminal so I can become a superuser and change certain things that you're usually not allowed to. My problem is that when i type su into terminal, it asks for a password (which it's suppose to do) but I can't figure out the password. i have two secure passwords which I usually use and I tried them both but to no avail. How to do find it out? Should I have already set it? If so, then when did I do that?

Thanks for your help guys!

 

[chevy]

don't use just "su" but use "su <username>" with your administrator user name. It should do it.

 

[chevy]

Or use "sudo" when you want to run a specific command

 

[nixgeek]

You can also get to the root prompt by typing "sudo -s" and then providing the password for the username you're logged in with. That will put you in a root prompt if you're account is set to administer the system.

 

[MisterMe]

... So my next idea is to use superuser (su) in terminal so I can become a superuser and change certain things that you're usually not allowed to. My problem is that when i type su into terminal, it asks for a password (which it's suppose to do) but I can't figure out the password. ...

What you are trying to do is extremely dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. Clearly you don't know what you are doing. I suggest that you do what you can with the sudo command and let it go at that.

 

[nixgeek]

What you are trying to do is extremely dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. Clearly you don't know what you are doing. I suggest that you do what you can with the sudo command and let it go at that.

That is true. Thank you for adding that....forgot to mention that you can do some damage when you're in that mode, even with "sudo -s" I believe. I only use it when it's extremely necessary.

 

[supanatral]

What you are trying to do is extremely dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. Clearly you don't know what you are doing. I suggest that you do what you can with the sudo command and let it go at that.

I appreciate your concern, however, I do understand the risks involved. I'm very experienced in the Windows OS and go through stuff that is just as dangerous everyday but now I'm wanting to try to learn Mac OSX just as deeply. Thank goodness for Time Machine - you know, just in case.