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I was taking a look for questions, and I started to read this thread.

One of the answers says to use the command cat /etc/passwd|grep '/bin/bash', to test if there's other users in the computer. For security purposes, I tested that and I got this:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
nori:x:1000:1000:Nori,,,:/home/nori:/bin/bash

Now, I would like to know, why there is a root user? I thought I only created 1 user.

Also, please note that after installing Ubuntu, my friends (who also use Linux, but not Ubuntu) told me to create a root password (which is different from the user password).

EDIT: To add the root password, I used the sudo -i, and then I used the passwd to create a new password.

Thank you for the help, and sorry if this question have already been answered.

Community
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Nori-chan
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2 Answers2

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All linux systems have a root user; that is the user responsible for starting all kind of services.

In Debian based systems (like Ubuntu is) root itself disabled and we use a "sudo" system where a normal user gets elevated permissions by entering the admin password.

You can see the root prompt when you enter with your admin user: 

sudo su

and the admin password for your user. Example:

rinzwind@schijfwereld:~$ sudo su
[sudo] password for rinzwind: 
root@schijfwereld:/home/rinzwind#

Mind you: using it is discouraged; if you use it to access nautilus it is possible to break your system since some files depend on being owned by your user (and not root) and can be changed to root when changing the file.

Rinzwind
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Root is the superuser of your PC. Generally the user created during install is an administrator but doesn't have the privileges to run system level tasks. These admin users though have the permission to request the system altering commands from the Root using the sudo command.

Any other user doesnt even have the permission to request sudo permission from the root. Your user name should be part of sudoers file to be able to do so.

astrob0t
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