Setting root password on Ubuntu

First enable the root account by running the command...

:~# sudo passwd -u root

Enter your personal password to continue...

Now reset - add the root password by running the command...

:~# sudo passwd root

You will be prompted for a new password for the root user

That's it, you can switch to root with the 'su' command...

:~# su

enter the root password...


Ah, but it's not over, if you try to login via SFTP as root you will find that your ignored, hmm, what have Ubuntu got against root?

Solution is to edit sshd_config...

:~# nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

and edit line 28 from...

PermitRootLogin without-password

to

PermitRootLogin yes

Save changes and exit...

Then restart SSH...

:~# service ssh restart

There done, now you can login via SFTP as root.