Dear Satheesh,
Few distros like Ubuntu do not assign a root password by
default and make the user a sudo-er. To execute any command as root prefix
it with sudo and enter your own user account password when prompted for one.
If you try to open some gnome apps (Say Synaptic), then also it asks for a
password. As Ubuntu uses gksudo, this is also your user password. To get to
a root shell type sudo -s and enter your own user a/c password. To set the
root password, type passwd in a root shell and enter the new password for
root. Hope this helps.
Regards,
Karthik Ramgopal
BITS Pilani
