Why does my root password not work here?

Gnarlodious wrote:

That's exactly what I'm saying, the root password doesn't work. I can log in to root account in Terminal but not in the root prefpanel. I assume System Administrator is a long name for root...

How to enable the root user or change the root password on Mac - Apple Support

The username for the root user is

root

The password will be whatever was set up for "System Administrator", if you are logged in as system administrator it will be the password you used to log in.

There is absolutely no reason to be logged in as the root user within the GUI environment (or even the command line). In fact it can be extremely dangerous because the GUI apps were likely never tested in that environment. You are definitely reducing system security because now everything is run as root without needing any confirmation passwords. Apple does not test things in a non-standard/default configuration such as this. I'm not sure Apple does enough testing even with a default configuration these days. A regular macOS admin user account is sufficient for performing any actions needed. Besides a root user on macOS is no longer "God"....even the root user is severely restricted with later versions of macOS.

And @steve626 is absolutely correct, the root user is "root". You have probably just discovered one of the many "gotchas" of running as root...imagine the ones that may go undetected until it is too late to fix. I really don't get people's obsession with using "root" these days. Once "sudo" was introduced decades ago, it made the need to be logged in as "root" obsolete. There is always a way to do what is needed without needing to be logged in as root...it may not always be easy, but there is always a way.

Why the Root User Password is not working

I have no idea

Did you forget it or perhaps mistyped the alphanumeric and special characters you assigned the Root User Account ?

About the root user

To learn how to enable the root user, see the Apple Support article How to enable the root user or change the root password on Mac. When you create a password for the root user, choose a complex password that contains alphanumeric and special characters, to prevent the password from being compromised.