

May 30 23:03:01 wks05 su: pam_authenticate: Authentication failure May 30 23:02:59 wks05 su: pam_unix(su:auth): authentication failure logname=nixcraft uid=1000 euid=0 tty=/dev/pts/3 ruser=nixcraft rhost= user=root May 30 23:02:56 wks05 su: FAILED su for root by nixcraft May 30 23:02:56 wks05 su: pam_authenticate: Authentication failure For example, if you are RHEL/CentOS (CentOS Stream)/Alma/Rocky/Fedora Linux user, type the following as root to see the contents of /var/log/secure:ĭebian / Ubuntu Linux user try the following tail command on the /var/log/auth.log: Now, this is useful to find out su login information. The su command logs its usage in a system log file.
STARTX ONLY RUNS AS ROOT UPDATE
# STEP #3 - Let us run sysadmin commands such as updating packages # yum upgrade # <- FOR RHEL/CentOS serverĪpt update & apt upgrade # <- For Debian/Ubuntu server su command and log files # STEP #1 - Login as a normal user account # ssh user1 STEP #2 - Now switch to the root account # su. Hence, first, log in as a regular user and then switch to the root account using the su command: $ ssh ssh ssh remote root login over ssh session is disabled in most cases for security reasons. You can use the ssh client/command command as follows: Sample outputs: }$ Remote root login over the ssh session
STARTX ONLY RUNS AS ROOT PASSWORD
To log in as another user, say nixcraft, type the following command (you need to supply a nixcraft user account password when }$ su - nixcraft Once logged in, your prompt should change from $ to #. You need to supply the root user account password when prompted: Password: ******* Next, open the Terminal application and type the following command followed by the key: For example, type the following command to log in as a root user.

The user will be prompted for a password, if appropriate. If invoked without a user name, su defaults to becoming the superuser. The su command only works if you know the target or root user’s password. This command allows you to become a superuser or substitute user, spoof user, set user or switch user. In other words, to become a superuser during a login session, use the su command. The su command is used to change the user ID. You need to use the su or sudo or doas command to switch to root user account. Therefore, you use a normal user account instead. It is not good practice for anyone to use root as their normal user account because of security risks. The root user can do many things an ordinary user cannot, such as changing the ownership of files, mounting disk, formatting & restating a new file system, starting/stopping services, and binding to ports numbered below 1024 and more. It is the conventional name of the user who has all rights or permissions on the system. The root user acts as a superuser on Linux, macOS, *BSD, and UNIX-like operating systems. Therefore, they need to log in as an admin user on all Linux and Unix machines. The person responsible for setting up and maintaining the system or server is called the system administrator, and it is the role of the system administrator. How do I log in as root user under Linux, Apple macOS (OS X), *BSD, and UNIX-like operating systems?
