Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX AS 2.1 Installation Manual page 66

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Use the root account only for system administration. Create a non-root account for your general use
and su - to root when you need to fix something quickly. These basic rules will minimize the chances
of a typo or an incorrect command doing damage to your system.
To become root, type su - at the shell prompt in a terminal window and
then press
The installation program will prompt you to set a root password
root password. The installation program will not let you proceed to the next section without entering
a root password.
The root password must be at least six characters long; the password you type is not echoed to the
screen. You must enter the password twice; if the two passwords do not match, the installation program
will ask you to enter them again.
You should make the root password something you can remember, but not something that is easy
for someone else to guess. Your name, your phone number, qwerty, password, root, 123456, and
anteater are all examples of bad passwords. Good passwords mix numerals with upper and lower case
letters and do not contain dictionary words: Aard387vark or 420BMttNT, for example. Remember
that the password is case-sensitive. If you write down your password, keep it in a secure place. How-
ever, it is recommended that you do not write down this or any password you create.
Do not use one of the example passwords offered in this manual. Using one
of these passwords could be considered a security risk.
The root user (also known as the superuser) has complete access to the entire
system; for this reason, logging in as the root user is best done only to perform
system maintenance or administration.
2 A root password is the administrative password for your Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS system. You should only
log in as root when needed for system maintenance. The root account does not operate within the restrictions
placed on normal user accounts, so changes made as root can have implications for your entire system.
Chapter 3:Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS
[Enter] . Then, enter the root password and press
Tip
2
for your system. You must enter a
Note
Note
[Enter] .