On Wed, 9 Apr 2025 10:50:54 +0100 James Freer <jrjfr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi members > > I've just done my install of Debian 12 Live XFCE version. Been a user > of Xubuntu for 15 years and thought i would change. Tried some of the > derivatives and chose Debian to go with. > > I would be grateful if someone could explain why admin root user is > not set to default. I have always had user login and password and then > root for for other tasks like Aptitude updates. [I am a fan of > Aptitude although most folk seem to prefer Apt]. > > Also not sure where to set root admin user. I suppose it doesn't > matter if one is using Debian on a home PC like myself rather than a > server but i'd just like to know. > From your experience, you would qualify to use Expert Install, and if you had, you would have been asked to set a root password, and asked whether you wanted to create other users. There will certainly be a root user. It cannot have a password since you were not asked to set one, and I believe it is not enabled for login. There is no default root password, and it is a matter of Debian policy to disable root login for non-expert installations. The user you did create should have sudo permissions, so you should be able to do sudo passwd root in a terminal and be allowed to set the root password, which should enable the root account for login. I'm saying 'should', as it is many years since I did a non-expert installation and I haven't done this myself. Let us know if it doesn't work, and always use Expert Install in future. It's usually a good idea to use the netinstall image, as that allows you to install only what you need, as long as you have an Internet connection. -- Joe
