RHEL 6 - Root Password Change (How To)

Hello,

I have a question in regards to the Root password reset. How does a newbie do it?

I'm trying to change the password and there's no "icon" for that.

When I go into terminal, it says I need to be logged into root.

Isn't the main account that I created, the root account?

Thank you,

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Comments

alias454

In a terminal type sudo passwd root and enter your current password when prompted.

phatrik

Type the command in a terminal exactly as alias454 typed it in bold and you'll be on your way to change root's password. Just to elaborate a little bit on what's going on here:

"Isn't the main account that I created, the root account?"

When installing RHEL (or one of its clones such as CentOS), you'll be asked to provide a password for the root account and to optionally create a second account. When creating that second account, you have the possibility of making it an administrator account. Making the account an administrator account means the user will be added to a group called 'wheel', therefore authorizing the account you just created to use 'sudo'. Prefixing any commands with 'sudo' is the equivalent of 'Run as administrator' on a Windows OS. If you don't add 'sudo' in front of the commands you're running they're run as a regular user (the user you're logged in as).