How to sign into "root" account by default on Windows Subsystem for Linux Bash terminal
Windows 10's Anniversary Update just came out and I immediately installed the Windows Subsystem for Linux to see how it fares. I found only one major shortcoming so far: there was no obvious way to use the root account as the default.
I know it goes against a lot of best practices and what not, but I personally don't like having to remember to type sudo in front of most commands. This can get especially annoying when I open a text file for editing with nano only to discover I have to abandon my changes because I didn't use sudo.
Is there any way to make the terminal start as root by default?
The command to set the default Linux user is different in different versions of Windows.
For versions of WSL up to the Fall Creators Update, run the following command in an elevated Windows command prompt:
lxrun /setdefaultuser root
For installations after the Fall Creators Update, the command is:
<distro> config --default-user root
Substitute the distro's exe name for <distro> in the command above. So, if you're running Ubuntu, the command would be:
ubuntu config --default-user root
For openSUSE...
opensuse-42 config --default-user root
And, for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, the command is...
sles-12 config --default-user root
Again, all of these commands are performed from an elevated Windows command prompt.
Note:
The examples above are for the root user. You may specify any other existing username in place of root.
In a command prompt with elevated permissions run the command lxrun /setdefaultuser root
lxrun is the tool for performing administrative operations on the LX subsystem.
Use
ubuntu1604 config --default-user root & ubuntu1604.exe
I tried the solutions mentioned above but somehow I always end up with the user login rather than root
Try my way if someone still needed.
My computer
- Windows 10 winver: 21H1(19043).
- Subsystem: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
Open Registry Editor with shortcut key: windows + r.
type: regedit and enter.
Go to this path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss
and find the "DistributionName" you are using. (Ubuntu-18.04 is mine) Modify this name "DefaultUid" set value equal 0 then click Ok button to save. then log off and log in to reset Registry.
Open your bash shell and enjoy it.
0 is the root user's id, you can check by running this command
cat /etc/passwd;
and find root user.