On Tue, Jun 20, 2023 at 07:35:00PM -0400, gene heskett wrote: > with a slight difference. So now I have an unk pw set for root, and will > likely have to re-install, again if I reboot.....
Nonsense. You can set a new root password with "sudo passwd root" any time you wish, even without knowing the existing root password. If you want to GET RID OF the root password entirely, just edit the /etc/shadow file and mangle the password hash for root. Traditionally, one puts *LOCK* or some similar string containing asterisks in front of the hash. This turns it into an invalid hash, without destroying it, so that you can "unlock" it by removing the added text, should you decide to do that. P.S. you can test your root password by using "su". Totally 100% known and predictable program, no surprises or learning curve as there is with this pkexec thing.
