Question

su root not working

Posted on January 11, 2021
DigitalOcean Droplets Ubuntu
Asked by userdo

I tried to create a droplet, I went with the default settings, I picked an SSH key.

I then logged into it fine with the SSH key I picked.

I then created a new user.

$adduser bob<ENTER>

$su bob<ENTER>

That was fine.

But now I can’t $su root

If I try blank password it won’t let me. And I didn’t set a password for root. I only did default settings.

How am I meant to do it?

Thanks

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userdo • January 11, 2021

Accepted Answer

got it had to do the passwd command and set a password for root.

Bobby Iliev

Site Moderator

• January 11, 2021

Hi there,

Another option would be to add your new bob user to the sudoers group. That way when you are logged in as the new bob user you could run sudo -i, type the password for the bob user and this would log you in as the root user.

That way you would not have to set a password for the root user.

You can take a look at this quick video on how to do that here: