Root

tags: root administrator permissions console terminal

Root can mean differrent things in Linux.
The root partition is the partition with you system files in it.
The filesystem root is the ground level of your filesystem, you can go in no deeper.

The user root is the Linux equivalent (more or less) to the Windows Administrator.

How to become root in a console

If you need root privileges, this is how to get them.

• Open a terminal aka console aka command prompt.
  

su -

• You will be asked for the password (you may not see anything echoed on the screen while entering it). When you look at the prompt, you will see that the user name has changed to root@localhost or something similar. This indicates you now have root privileges
• Do whatever you needed as root
• When you are done, enter:

exit

You'll notice by looking at the prompt that you are the standard user again.

Also see Open Terminal as Root.