The Root Password
The root user owns the system and has absolute power over every piece of hardware as well as certain actions that require absolute control, such as manipulating the kernel and changing authentication sources. You need root permissions to perform these tasks. You can log in as root, use su(1) to become root, or use sudo(8) (discussed later this chapter) to get certain root-level privileges without actually using the root account.
To use the root password, you can either log in as root at a console login prompt or, if you belong to the group wheel, log in as yourself and use the switch user command su(1). Of the two, I recommend using su; it logs who uses it and can be used when you are logged in from a remote system. To use ...
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