Administrator as Root

[offgridguy]

Recent events have me wondering, besides Fedora, are there other linux distro's
that allow administrator privileges as Root?

[cortman]

?
There is a root account on every Linux system- it's part of the system. Ubuntu has it disabled by default, but you can enable it just by editing /etc/passwd. This holds true for any distro.

[mörgæs]

In case someone is wondering why it is disabled:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

[offgridguy]

Thank you for the replies, I have read the links provided and realize that ubuntu
regards this as a security feature, I also know how to set the root password and
log in as root using the methods we are not allowed to post in this forum, but I was thinking of distro's that don't come with these restrictive measures.

[oldfred]

I have only used Ubuntu, but most other distributions make you log into root to perform administrative activities and then log back in as your user. And only certain authorized users can login as root.

The disadvantage is then somewhat like Windows in that once you log in as root you do not want to change back to a user. But that creates all sort of issues.

[buzzingrobot]

The notion of an "Adminstrator" is, more or less, a Windows-ism. Administrator privileges in Windows are directly comparable to root privileges in Unix/Linux. Broadly speaking, you can either log in as root, become root temporarily, or use the sudo command to escalate your privileges to that of root on a command-by-command basis.

By default, Ubuntu limits the ways you can acquire root privileges. This is to keep users from doing something like becoming the root user, forgetting they did this, and unintentionally deleting system files they would not be able to delete as a normal user.

Hence, the recommendation to just use sudo.

However, you can use "sudo -i" in a terminal to acquire root privileges, keeping them until you enter "exit".

There's nothing in Unix/Linux that requires users to constantly run as root, unlike Windows where many users always needed to run as the Administrator. If someone is constantly staying logged in as root in Unix/Linux. they do not understand the system they are using.

[cortman]

Debian and most variants enable the root account by default. Straight Debian doesn't come with sudo configured.

[offgridguy]

I have only used Ubuntu, but most other distributions make you log into root to perform administrative activities and then log back in as your user. And only certain authorized users can login as root.

The disadvantage is then somewhat like Windows in that once you log in as root you do not want to change back to a user. But that creates all sort of issues.

Thank you for the reply oldfred, your synopsis as always is correct.
I have found some other distributions make it much easier to do, than ubuntu.

The potential for problems is certainly there, as you suggest in your comparison
to windows as administrator in windows has power to trash the entire system,if
they are foolish enough to do it.

My thoughts though are that most if not all newcomers to ubuntu are windows
users, and in spite of the unfettered control allowed by windows, probably
never had any serious problems because of it. Myself included. So I find the
ubuntu restrictions puzzling.

[prodigy_]

I am thinking of Administrator in the
sense of admin. in windows which allows complete control of the Operating System.

Windows in-built Administrator doesn't have full control. It's an elevated account but, for example, it can't even take ownership of an arbitrary registry key.

And root isn't really disabled in Ubuntu, only locked so that you can't directly log on to it. sudo -i still gives you interactive root shell, so in practice there's little difference.

[offgridguy]

The notion of an "Adminstrator" is, more or less, a Windows-ism. Administrator privileges in Windows are directly comparable to root privileges in Unix/Linux. Broadly speaking, you can either log in as root, become root temporarily, or use the sudo command to escalate your privileges to that of root on a command-by-command basis.

By default, Ubuntu limits the ways you can acquire root privileges. This is to keep users from doing something like becoming the root user, forgetting they did this, and unintentionally deleting system files they would not be able to delete as a normal user.

Hence, the recommendation to just use sudo.

However, you can use "sudo -i" in a terminal to acquire root privileges, keeping them until you enter "exit".

There's nothing in Unix/Linux that requires users to constantly run as root, unlike Windows where many users always needed to run as the Administrator. If someone is constantly staying logged in as root in Unix/Linux. they do not understand the system they are using.

Thank you for the reply, you have touched on the very core of the issue,
ie;you can escalate your privileges to root on a command by command basis.

How true, but this requires a proficient working knowledge of the CLI, as
administrator settings using the GUI in ubuntu are almost non-existent.
making the CLI an absolute must to utilize ubuntu to the fullest potential.

Realizing the importance of this, I am attempting to increase my knowledge
in this area, as you and many others are no doubt aware, it is a huge
learning curve.