OS X Lion - Can't login as root after disabling then reenabling

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

So I hit the wrong - symbol in your instructions (completely my fault, obviously) and deleted the System Administrator altogether, rather than the AuthenticationAuthority. If you notice, there is a + and - on the bottom left and also on the right hand pane, below list of items for System Administrator.

I'm sort of stuck now and I'm hoping you might be able to help out.

I'm not a casual user and realize what a foolish mistake this was, but, I'm stuck with it now.

Any ideas? I'm not able to disable, enable or use the root and I can't change the password now. And because Lion doesn't come on a drive of any kind, I'm at a loss as to how to reinstall.

Thanks in advance.

Thank you for this!!

I did exactly the same thing as Ludacris1. Is there any way to fix this, short of restoring from backup?

Thanks for responding anyway. I should have read all the posts before blundering ahead! Would it be possible to edit your otherwise excellent instructions to include a warning about hitting the - (minus) button on the wrong side?

We'll you got it right about how to re-establish your "root" account but you ignored the original problem. You said it worked fine at first but when you logged out of "root" then tried to log back in it wouldn't accept the password. What actually happens is the "root" account works until disabled. When you enable it again the passwords will no longer work. You have to go through the whole process as described above every time you enable the "root" account. If you change the password in the mean time you will be asked for the old password at log-in and the new password also. Don't forget the old password.

This is not how this is supposed to work but Apple is loth to change it. Hope this helps.

I did

8. On the right, highlight "AuthenticationAuthority" and hit the - (minus) button at the bottom to delete it.

but now the root user dissapeard from users. I cant disable root user and the password issue still remains.

could anyone help please?

Well they say a little knowledge is dangerous, but I have a little knowledge if you like danger.

If you are a system administrator you can follow along. If you arn't you need to contact someone who is.

1. Open "terminal"

2. type "dsenableroot" return

3. enter password for system administrator "password whatever it is" return

4. enter desired password for root "password desired" return

5. re-enter root password for verification "password" return

6. type "exit" return

7. go to menu bar and "quit" terminal

8. logout

9. you should be at log-in screen

10. double click "other"

11. enter "root password whatever that is"

There you have it. Should only take less than a minute.

I tried that but I got the

dsenableroot:: ***Failed to enable root user.

but thanks anyways 🙂

dscl . -create /Users/root NFSHomeDirectory /var/root command brings back the root user for anyone if needed

I just had this problem too and Crazy Skull Guy's solution worked. But I'm sorry to hear it breaks every time I disable root. Everybody says over and over to never leave the root user enabled, but it seems Apple has made a huge dis-incentive to disable it. Ouch.

Thank you so much!! This was very helpful and saved me from a potential computer catastrophe! Wonderful explination!