
Today I got stuck on what could be a simple problem to long time Ubuntu users - making changes that require *root *access.

I never faced this problem until today because my Ubuntu user account/password was enough to make system level changes as it was treated like admin user by Ubuntu.

Today I tried to modify the directory */var/www *which is owned by the _root_. Since the folder is not owned by me, Ubuntu asked me to enter the *root* password and I typed my Ubuntu user password. It didn't work, obviously.

Then I tried to escalate the permission level to *root, *so I tried the command: *su root *and gave my Ubuntu user password. This also failed.

After googling sometime, I found out that,

1.  Ubuntu does not allow you to directly login as _root_.
2.  The first Ubuntu account you create is treated like *admin* account.

So, in order to escalate yourself as a *root *user in Ubuntu terminal, I had to give the command: '**\*sudo su -' **(without quotes) *and then enter my current Ubuntu user password. After that, I was escalated to *root _user and then able to modify the _/var/www \*folder as I wanted. Piece of cake!!


root user in Ubuntu


By default, when you install XAMPP in your windows machine, the `root` password for the MySQL is set to empty. But this is not recommended, as the MySQL database without a password will be accessible to everyone. To avoid this, a proper/secure password must be set to the user `root`. To do it in XAMPP, there are two ways.

## Method 1: reset XAMPP MySQL root password through web interface:

After you started your XAMPP server, go to the browser and type the URL **http://localhost/security/** (incase you've [modified XAMPP server port][1], you need to include that port number also in previous URL). The security page will be shown where you can change the `root` password for MySQL. This will update the phpMyAdmin config also.

[1]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/how-to-change-xampp-server-port "How to change XAMPP server port?"

## Method 2: reset XAMPP MySQL root password through SQL update:

1.  Start the Apache Server and MySQL instances from the XAMPP control panel.
2.  After the server started, open any web browser and give **http://localhost:8090/phpmyadmin/** (if you are running XAMPP on 8090 port). This will open the phpMyAdmin interface. Using this interface we can manager the MySQL server from the web browser.
3.  In the phpMyAdmin window, select _SQL_ tab from the right panel. This will open the SQL tab where we can run the SQL queries.
4.  Now type the following query in the textarea and click **Go**  
    `UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('password') WHERE User='root'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;`
5.  Now you will see a message saying that the query has been executed successfully.
6.  If you refresh the page, you will be getting a error message. This is because the phpMyAdmin configuration file is not aware of our newly set root passoword. To do this we have to modify the phpMyAdmin config file.
7.  Open the file **[XAMPP Installation Path] / phpmyadmin / config.inc.php** in your favorite text editor.
8.  Search for the string `$cfg\['Servers'\]\[$i\]['password'] = '';` and change it to like this, `$cfg\['Servers'\]\[$i\]['password'] = 'password';` Here the 'password' is what we set to the `root` user using the SQL query.
9.  Now all set to go. Save the config.inc.php file and restart the XAMPP server.


This article explains how to change the MySQL root password in XAMPP for windows. When you install XAMPP, the default root password for MySQL would be empty, which is not recommended.

How to change the root password for MySQL in XAMPP?


Four months back, I had installed Ubuntu on my laptop and completely forgot about that after the installation. Yesterday, when I tried to install Java and Netbeans IDE on Ubuntu, I had to do some admin works, but I dont remember what password I gave for the 'Ëœroot' user during the installation. So, I thought I forgot the root password and I would have to re-install Ubuntu.

But, when searching on the Internet, I came to know that during the installation, Ubuntu do not ask any password for the root user (but I forgot this!). So, by default the root password is set to blanks. So, now I am happy that I don't need to re-install Ubuntu. ![:)][1]

[1]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

But to change the root password in Ubuntu, which blanks by default, follow this step:

1.  Open Terminal/Command
2.  Type **sudo passwd**
3.  Ubuntu will ask you for current user password. Type in the current password and press enter.
4.  Now Ubuntu will ask you to enter the new password for the root. Type in the new password, confirm it again and you are done.PS: It is not possible to log-in as a 'Ëœroot' user. I guess this feature is de-activated in Ubuntu.


#password (3)