Root Account

I need serious help!!! I am a new mac user...I've had my computer for less than a year and I just found out after not being able to log into my root account that you shouldnt use it for everyday usage and I have and now I can't log into it. How do I get this fixed??

Assuming you have the CD/DVD which came with the Mac, boot from it (insert disk, restart, hold down "C" key until booting process clearly underway), choose your language, then look in the menu above for "change password." That will let you change any users' passwords.
Now, it is possible to prevent this, but if you bought the Mac yourself and don't use it in a corporate/school setting, it is probably still possible. It's a power-user thing to set it that way.

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I am trying to activate root account on my MAC. The directions I've seen do not match what is in System Preference for Accounts or Users

I am trying to activate the root account on my new Mac Book Pro. The instructions that I have found do not match what I have in System Preferences. What is the process when using Users and Groups. When I click on Join the Network Account Server- Open Directory Utility I don't see a option to activate root user as the instructions say at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528
OS X Lion
From the Apple menu choose System Preferences....
From the View menu choose Users & Groups.
Click the lock and authenticate as an administrator account.
Click Login Options....
Click the "Edit..." or "Join..." button at the bottom right.
Click the "Open Directory Utility..." button.
Click the lock in the Directory Utility window.
Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
Choose Enable Root User from the Edit menu.
Enter the root password you wish to use in both the Password and Verify fields, then click OK.

Do you mean you cannot select "Enable Root User" from the "Edit" menu as shown below?
Why do you think you need to enable the root user? I've never needed it in the history of OS X.

How can I transfer the root account on my computer to a regular account?

Not sure if this in the correct category, but anyway...
Back in October 2010, I installed a Java update or something on my regular account, and it broke the account for some reason. I had no other account to use except for the root user that I enabled previously (just for testing). I logged into it and used it as my regular account, checking every so often to check if my regular account fixed itself. Sadly, it didn’t (at the time), but after a while, I upgraded my computer to Snow Leopard (I was previously running Leopard), I found that my old account finally fixed itself. Immediately, I attempted to copy over all of my files from the root account to the other account. I went onto the account, and it seemed to be a fresh account, so I assumed that it didn’t register the account files as legitimate and I guess it made it into a new account. I gave up after fiddling with it for a bit. To this day, I’m still using the root user as my main account, but a lot of things are broken (like Spotlight, Mail search, some other things) and I’d just like to know a clean way I could easily transfer all of the stuff from the root user to my old account (including all of the Library files and such). Please don’t say “You shouldn’t have used the root user because it’s really dangerous,” or whatever. I’ve been responsible with it for almost 2 years and I don’t think I could’ve done anything else. Thanks for any help.

Its doable with Terminal. Log into your new userfolder in the /Users/ folder and open Terminal and say:
whoami
This is the owner of your newly transferred files.
Log into your root account and Launch Terminal. You will use the scp (secure copy) command to copy your files over to the new userfolder, replacing PathToNewFolder with the path to your new folder:
cd /PathToNewFolder
scp -r /private/var/root/* .
The copied files will all have ownership of root account, so you will then set ownership of all the files to your new username that you remember from above, replacing "NewName" with your new username:
$USER=NewName
find . -exec chown $USER:admin {} \;
find . -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \;
find . -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;
chmod 755 Library
find Library -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find Library -type f -exec chmod 600 {} \;
chmod 755 Library/Autosave\ Information Library/Application\ Support Library/Keychains Library/Application\ Support/Terminal
chmod 644 Library/Preferences/QuickTime\ Preferences Library/Keychains/* Library/Favorites/* Library/Caches/com.apple.preferencepanes.cache Library/Caches/com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache
chmod 755 Public ~/Sites
chmod 733 Public/Drop\ Box
find Sites -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find Sites -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
Then you can login to your new account with all your stuff hopefully intact. If anything doesn't work respond here and it can be fixed.

How to allow users to launch SMC; login to SMC without root account

I've very familliar with how to create accounts and assign members to groups and assign privliges in Solairs 10 using SMC. I want a user to review the audit logs using the SMC console since the logs are GUI but I don't want the user to use the root account to login to SMC. I know the user can use the su command but I can only login with root after typing su and then launch SMC.
Bottom line what is the best way a user can use the SMC console without having the root password to execute SMC and then login to SMC and view the audit logs?
A million thanks
John

I found the best solution is to use a Role Based Access Control (RBAC). Using SMC as root go the the Role Icon and setup a Role using the wizzard. Next have the user login to the system, go to the terminal and type:
/usr/sadm/bin/smc &
The individual user will be prompted to login with his specific user name and password and then prompted to use the Role Login Name and Password you provided in the above paragraph.
Now the user can perform SMC functions without the need for root.

[SOLVED] Mouse Acting Up When Using Cinnamon In Non-Root Accounts

I have recently installed Arch linux on my computer, alongside Ubuntu and Windows. I installed cinnamon and xorg from the official repositories, and was happy with the experience. However, I wanted to transition from a root account to a normal user account, because certain software (e.g. Chrome) refuses to run under root. So, I created my user, home directory, and password, and was able to login. I copied my .xinitrc from my root home directory to my normal user accounts' home directory. The contents were this:
exec gnome-session-cinnamon
So, I type startx on the command line, expect everything to work normally, and I find that my mouse is not working properly:
1. I am unable to drag windows around
2. Applications with a scroll bar automatically scroll down to the bottom of page, and you can't scroll back up again
3. I cannot click anything on the sidebar of the cinnamon menu (which contains things like logoff and shutdown, so I had to kill the x server)
However, when logged in on root, none of this happens. At first, I thought this problem was due to me using a display manager (I used gdm and slim). This, however, is not the case. There isn't much out there on the internet for the problem I have, and I assume that this doesn't happen very often. What I did find, however, was to install the following packages:
sudo pacman -S xf86-input-evdev
sudo pacman -S xf86-input-mouse
The problem was still not fixed. I do not have an xorg.conf, but I do have a 50-vmmouse.conf in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d (I don't know if that's helpful, though):
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "vmmouse"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchTag "vmmouse"
Driver "vmmouse"
EndSection
Edit: I have a (I think) slightly more useful file: 10-evdev.conf in the same directory:
# Catch-all evdev loader for udev-based systems
# We don't simply match on any device since that also adds accelerometers
# and other devices that we don't really want to use. The list below
# matches everything but joysticks.
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev keyboard catchall"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev tablet catchall"
MatchIsTablet "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev touchscreen catchall"
MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
Last edited by iandun (2013-07-26 13:42:05)

I have fixed it! After my mouse started automatically moving to the left side of the screen, even when logged in as root, I thought I would have to go back to Ubuntu, but I was able to read another forum thread about someone who was having the same issue (about the mouse moving left), and said that when he unplugged his joystick, everything worked. I realized that I had a joystick, so I unplugged mine and now everything is working like a charm!

How to unlock Root Account in non-global zone on Solaris 10 Branded Zone

Hello All,
I have a phsical x86 server running Solaris 11. On top of that, I have 3 Solaris 10 branded zones configured. Due to security policy the root account has been locked by 5 failed login attempts.
Is there a way by which I can unlock root account in non-global zone.
I have the root access of global zone.
Pls help as these are production servers.
Regards

Hey,
It worked. Actually i forgot to save the file.
I changed the /<zonepath>/root/etc/shadow
Removed *LK* & then from global zone did zlogin -l root zonename
Thanks lot.

Locking root account causes account to expire

If I lock the root account using passwd -l root, PAM prevents me from adding users or groups, saying that root's account has expired. This wouldn't be so bad, except that PAM continues to prevent me from adding users/groups even after I unlock the root account and create a new password for it. What is causing this, and how can I fix it so that I'm able to install hal, dbus, etc. and administer users and groups again?

Okay, found a workaround... Using usermod instead of passwd should apparently work. For anyone having problems with this: first, use passwd --unlock to unlock the root account, and then usermod --lock to lock its password.

Cisco Unity Connection root account password

How could I get the linux root account password for my lab unity connection? I successfully created the account but it gives me a passphrase is there a tool to convert that into a password?

That only Cisco TAC can provide and only for legitimate troubleshooting purposes or to apply the workaround of a bug.
Look at htluo's blog, there was a non-supported method of creating a root account. It clearly mentions that the procedure should only be performed on non-production servers so if all you want is to play around with the lab server you can do it.
HTH
java
If this helps, please rate
www.cisco.com/go/pdihelpdesk

Disabling Adobe Reader XI's Plug-In for Safari Does Not Require Access to OS X's 'Root' Account

Why do the instructions for disabling the Adobe Reader plug-in for Safari say that one needs to do so from OS X's root account even though one only needs to authenticate using their administrator password to do so?

Why do the instructions for disabling the Adobe Reader plug-in for Safari say that one needs to do so from OS X's root account even though one only needs to authenticate using their administrator password to do so?

How to enable root account?

Now that Directory Utility seems to have disappeared, does anybody know how to enable the root account/change root admin password?

Yeah, I suppose using terminal is also an option. But I'm really much more of a GUI guy, it's what I grew up using, and what I'm most comfortable with, so if I can find ways of doing things without having to use terminal, that's usually the way I go. And besides, why have a mac with such a beautiful GUI if you're not going to use it? Haha.
I need to enable the root account as the only way my school has found to successfully install machine certificates to get our 802.x WEP wireless to work involves changing settings using the root account. Again, I'm sure there's probably a way of getting it to work using CLI and sudo, but just makes more sense for me this way.

Creative Cloud Desktop only works in root account

Mac 10.10.3
Can't open ACC desktop. nothing happened on the screen after clicking the icon. only an ACC logo (in grey) showed up in the status bar at the top but it disappeared quickly. Have tried:
1. Creative Cloud Cleaner
2. Safe Mode
3. clean OOBE, AAMUpdater folders
4. log in with another administrated user
Installed and opened successfully in root account, but still not working in my account (which is a administrator).
Please help me solve the problem. Thanks!

Ji Yunlu,
There seems to be a problem with permissions.
Kindly make sure that you have Read and Write permission on the folder mentioned below.
/Library/Application Support/Adobe
~/Library/Application Support/Adobe
/Application/utilities/Adobe Creative Cloud
/Application/utilities/Adobe Application Manager
Please share the results once done.
Thanks,
Atul Saini

Enable root account

cannot enable root account using the procedure in this link
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14281
I get to step 5 and don't see the option to enable the root account.

You can do almost everything "root" can do with "sudo" and an administrative account. Keeping an open and "always god-mode" account around is hazardous.
Why is "root" necessary?

After Effects won't update for MAC 10.9.4 even on Root account.

I have previously updated my Mac OS to 10.9.4 and it was only until today that i wanted to use After Effects. I open up After Effects and i get an error, after some googling I am taken to a download page for the After Effects update. I downloaded the update, but when I ran it it said I had insufficient privileges. After a long string of events that involved tricking my computer into thinking it was brand new to make an admin account, i made an admin account and from there got access to the root account. Once on the root account I figured that all permissions would be open, but no, I still get the same error message of, "Please contact your system Administrator if you wish to apply updates on your machine. Updates have been suppressed by your Administrator."
Is there a button I need to press or a command i need to type in the root account that will allow me to update AE? Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

This is not about the administrator for the computer; rather, this is about the administrator of your software licenses. Whoever distributed your Adobe software seems to have chosen the option in that distribution to disable updates. You'll need to talk with them.

Root account locked out after 3 login attempts

I've connected to a 280R (Solaris 9) machine through the console (null modem cable). After trying 3 failed login attempts, it reported that the root account has been locked out. When can I do now to re-enable it?
Vincent

The usual dance. :-)
1. Put in a Solaris install CD
2. "boot -s " at the "ok" prompt.
3. mount /dev/c<your boot partition> /mnt
4. edit /mnt/etc/passwd
5. Reboot the system.
6. login as root
7. Set your password.
8. write it on a post-it.
9. place post-it on monitor.
I'm kidding with steps 8 and 9.
HTH,
Roger S.
PS - Happy T-day

Root Account - No 'save as pdf' print option

The root account doesn't have the print option to 'save as PDF'. My other user accounts do have that option.
Any suggestions on how to enable the 'save as PDF' option for an account or if something special is needed for the root account?
-tjw

I log in as root because I don't like having to fiddle with permissions. For example I installed wireshark and it wasn't allowed to capture packets from the network interface because it needed special permissions. Even though the account I was using was a sys admin account I still needed log in as root; change permissions somewhere.
I decided that I would just log in as root. Yeah yeah its so very dangerous...no its not.
But; now that there are these little goofy things like so 'save as pdf' button forcing me to click 5 times to to the save as a pdf option under the preview button I may go back to a vanilla sys admin account.

Root Account

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