On Friday 20 March 2015, Gene Heskett wrote: > password. But the only way to get rid of a root password is a bare > metal reinstall. > surely not. I don't know the answer by heart, but editing in /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow, or other files for sure gives you the possibility to get rid of the password. Here seems to be an answer to your question: http://www.debianadmin.com/enable-and-disable-ubuntu-root-password.html In short: --- snip --- If you want to disable root account in ubuntu you need to lock the root account by using the following command $sudo passwd -l root --- snip --- I've not tested it though Gerhard