Can't enter root password in terminal

[Big Senpai]

Hello all.

I'm taking an A+ class & heard about Linux and wanted to try it, but I needed a small version I could run because I didn't think I had room on my hard drive so I chose to put Porteus on a USB thumbdrive. I'm a complete newb to Linux but I'm trying to learn & even picked up 2 big books at the Library to help me learn.

Anyways, I tried going into terminal & entering sudo passwd root to make myself a root/superuser. I get a prompt for a password after some text, but I can't enter anything. I have no idea why. I managed to change to root yesterday but don't remember how. Any suggestions on this or alternative way to login as root? I'm currently trying working on how to get Porteus to save my changes & I believe I have to be root to do so.

I really appreciate any help, Thanks!

[Jack]

In terminal do this.

Code: Select all

guest@porteus:~$ su
Password: 
root@porteus:/home/guest# 

The password is toor.

[Ed_P]

I'm currently trying working on how to get Porteus to save my changes & I believe I have to be root to do so.

Porteus saves changes as Guest.

If you have Porteus on a USB drive formatted as FAT32 you can create a save.dat file using Porteus's SaveFile Manager. To create that does require the root password but saving changes to it does not.

[donald]

I get a prompt for a password after some text, but I can't enter anything.

The password is not displayed.
Type the root password -- you will not see what you have entered -- and hit enter.
The terminal should have changed now from
guest@porteus:~$ to root@porteus:/home/guest#