How to Enable Root Login on a Linux Server

What you need before you start

• A VPS or dedicated server running Linux.
• A user with sudo privileges.
• An SSH client. More: How to use PuTTY.

Setting up root login

1. Connect to the server

   Connect to the server via SSH with your regular user.

   Done

2. Set a root password

   On Ubuntu, the root password isn’t set by default, so login would fail. Set it with:

   sudo passwd rootCopy

   Enter the new password twice. The characters aren’t shown as you type, which is normal. If root already has a password, skip this step.

   Done

3. Open the SSH configuration file

   Open the file in the editor:

   sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_configCopy

   Press Ctrl + W and search for PermitRootLogin. The line usually looks like this:

   #PermitRootLogin prohibit-passwordCopy
   Done

4. Change the PermitRootLogin setting

   Enable Disable

   Remove the # at the start of the line and change the value:

   PermitRootLogin yesCopy
   How to save

   Ctrl + O and Enter saves the file, Ctrl + X exits the editor.

   On some servers, e.g. Ubuntu, settings may be overridden by files in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/. Check that there’s no other PermitRootLogin value there:

   sudo grep -ri permitrootlogin /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/Copy
   Done

5. Test the configuration and restart SSH

   First, check the file for errors. If the command prints nothing, everything is fine:

   sudo sshd -tCopy

   Then restart the SSH service. The command depends on the system:

   Ubuntu / Debian AlmaLinux / Rocky

   sudo systemctl restart sshCopy
   Don’t close your current window

   Keep your current SSH session open until you’ve confirmed the new login works. If something goes wrong, you can use it to undo the changes.

   Done

Did it work?

Check which PermitRootLogin value SSH is actually using:

Then, in a new window, try logging in as root, replacing server_ip with your server IP: