Ubuntu lost root password

On popular request, here's the command that let you change the root password if you just simply don't know it. Anyway I need to warn you, that the root user itself is not enabled by default, so it really does not have a password either. I must cite it again: you do not need a standalone root user to work with Ubuntu! The normal user account that you have - holds the right to do super user operations, so you're the root yourself. All users, who belong to the admins group will automatically have right as well (check settings in the /etc/sudoers file). The sudo way means that you just want to do a task, but not run a shell as root. This is a huge difference! So instead of saying su, or su - to get to a root shell, you can say only sudo whatever and you'll be asked your normal user password only. That's all :) If you still keen on to have the normal root user on your box, type: sudo passwd root However I should say again, you don't want the root user became active on your box. If you want a root shell, simply run: sudo -s to get one!