If you have installed Debian without a root
password, you will automatically have sudo
enabled for the user account that you have created during the installation.
When you enable the root
account, always disable sudo
. You should never have both enabled, as it doubles the surface for malicious software or actors to compromise the system.
root
account, just give it a password. Open a terminal and type:
sudo passwd root
into it, and press Enter.
sudo
in the same terminal within the last 15 minutes). Type your password and press Enter.Enter new UNIX passwrod:
Enter the new root password, and press Enter. The cursor will not move. This is intentional so that the length of the new password is harder to guess by anyone with a malicious intent.
Retype new UNIX passwrod:
Confirm your password and press Enter
root
account. To test it, type the following command:
su
and press Enter.
root
password and press Enter. If there is no error, and the prompt changes to root@yourhostname#
, it all worked fine.Now you should disable sudo
, so you have only one way to access root
. To do this, it is possible to just remove the user from the sudo
group. This might be fine if you are the only user on the computer, but if it's a multi-user system, you might want to completely remove sudo
instead. To avoid confusion and any later problems, we'll opt for the second option. While still at the root
prompt, type:
apt purge sudo
and press Enter. This should remove sudo completely from your system.
The apt
command will be discussed in greater detail in [Discover Debian / installing Applications](/configuring/install-applications/install-new-applications/install from the cli)
exit
and press Enter.
And you are done. You can close the terminal now.
Although there is no standalone script provided for these simple tasks, the Way of Linux Admin console app, available from the Downloads page, hs pre-configured menu options that can make these tasks a lot easier.