Bug#977975: general: Root does not aknoledge root password
Package: general
Severity: important
Dear Maintainer,
*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***
* What led up to the situation?
I made several netinstalls of Debian Buster 10.7, via Netinst-cd-images. Used
eather Graphic or non-graphic, mostly expert install as I have used to make
partitions myself. Added to first Debian base item only Mate desktop and System
(tools) (the last item). About 3-4 times I chose in install also activate the
"Root login", gave the same password to Root as to my ordinary account: as the
only user I used 1-digit password, the same digit as ordinary Username login.
My internet connection did not fail all the time (lan, 10/10 MBit/s). I used to
make separate Boot, Root, Home partitions; Grub on MBR of GPT table, although
my PC is EFI-capable (Fujitsu Esprimo d756; Intel 6(5)00; 256 ssd Hynix (all
used ones before me for 3-4 years), no signs ever of harware deficiencies.
(I am writing the Report on MX Linux install, not Debian.)
* What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
ineffective)?
After install and reboot I tried to gain root rights: su. Then the Terminal
told the password was not right one, and that this incidence would be reported.
Also tried to login as Root. Again was always told that the password was not
right (one digit!). Yet about in 1(2) install all about the logins were working
excellently! Yet then I had missed some other minor things, and did new
install, hoping that I eventually had caught the point of my own mistake...
Installing Debian in case I did not determed Root-login, then, as if I
remember right (I made less such installs), at one install root privileges
worked faultlessly, at other not 100%. Also tried both 32-bit and 64-bit
installer; always Mate desktop adding just minimal selection.
* What was the outcome of this action?
As I wanted to find out Linux distro allowing minimal graphic desktop install
(less unused programs (bloatedness)), I tried Debian install really a lot of
times, thinking that the cause has to be my unfamiliarity with Debian
installer. At most times I did clean install, also reformatted the Home-
partition. Yet I had to abandon each new install because I could not use the
Terminal. (I am not sure, but probably the Synaptic accepted my password.)
* What outcome did you expect instead?
I expected my passwords working well. It is not so easy to get the su or sudo
working in Debian as I had used in Linux Mint -- but this is another question,
the question of convenience for newcomers. There was another thing also: the
wording (explaining) of the activating of Root login was quite different in
Graphic login and/or Graphic expert login and/or Non-graphic expert login. It
was quite hard for me get an idea what really I had chosen.
Nevertheless mostly I admire the detailness of Debian tutorial pages! Although,
hard to catch sometimes for simple mortals as I...
*** ***
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 10.6
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-12-686-pae (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)
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