How do I log in as root user.

Rednik55,,

Important: If you are not familiar with the meaning of "root user," read this entire article to learn important precautionary information before using the root user. You must have an administrator account and password to complete the steps below.

About the root user

The user named "root" is a special user in UNIX-style operating systems that has read and write privileges to all areas of the file system. The root user should only be used for specific administration or monitoring tasks. After completing a task as the root user, you should log out of Mac OS X and log back in using a normal or administrator account. You should disable root access if you do not use it often.

The root user does not appear in Users or Accounts preferences.
Important notes

• Only the owner of a computer or its designated administrator(s) should have an administrator account or the root password.
• Any user with an administrator account can become the root user or reset the root password.
• A root password should be difficult to guess, containing both numbers and letters within the first eight characters.
• A root user has the ability to access other users' files.
• The root user has the ability to relocate or remove required system files and to introduce new files in locations that are protected from other users.

How to Enable the root user

• From the Apple menu choose System Preferences....
• From the View menu choose Users & Groups.
• Click the lock and authenticate as an administrator account.
• Click Login Options....
• Click the "Edit..." or "Join..." button at the bottom right.
• Click the "Open Directory Utility..." button.
• Click the lock in the Directory Utility window.
• Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
• Choose Enable Root User from the Edit menu.
• Enter the root password you wish to use in both the Password and Verify fields, then click OK.

How to Login as the root user

• If you are logged in, choose Log Out from the Apple menu.
• If you are logging in from a list of usernames with pictures, click Other.
• In the Name field, type: root
• In the Password field, type the password you defined in the steps above.

How to disable the root user

• From the Apple menu choose System Preferences....
• From the View menu choose Users & Groups.
• Click on the lock and authenticate with an administrator account.
• Click Login Options....
• Click the "Edit..." or "Join..." button at the bottom right
• Click the "Open Directory Utility..." button.
• Click the lock in the Directory Utility window.
• Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
• Choose Disable Root User from the Edit menu.

Please be careful as the Root user. Once you are done make sure you disable it.

Supporting Article,

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1528

Hope that helps,

Weston

Logging on as a root user is generally discouraged as a friend of mine with 30+ years of experience as a Unix Systems administrator with organizations like the FBI, NASA, etc. once said, "unless you want or needs lots of practice reinstalling Unix systems you just trashed." Instead he, and a host of other experienced Unix people, recommends logging on to your normal admin account and using the "sudo" command to preface commands in Terminal. To quote man sudo

sudo allows a permitted user to execute a command as the superuser or

another user, as specified in the sudoers file. The real and effective

uid and gid are set to match those of the target user as specified in

the passwd file and the group vector is initialized based on the group

file (unless the -P option was specified). If the invoking user is

root or if the target user is the same as the invoking user, no

password is required. Otherwise, sudo requires that users authenticate

themselves with a password by default (NOTE: in the default

configuration this is the user's password, not the root password).

Once a user has been authenticated, a time stamp is updated and the

user may then use sudo without a password for a short period of time (5

minutes unless overridden in sudoers).

You can still mess up the system but the window of opportunity is greatly reduced.