debian not accepting administrative password

Question

I have XFCE Debian on an old PowerPC PowerBook G4. When I go to open Synaptic Package Manager, a window pops up asking for my administrative password. I enter the password I normally use for sudo in Terminal, but it doesn't work. I enter nothing, but it doesn't work. I try various other ones - like 'debian', 'synaptic' and 'password', but that doesn't work either. Why doesn't it work?

Solution

The password you use for sudo is your password. The administrative password is the password of the user root.

If you forgot it, set it up again:

% sudo su -
[sudo] password for *your user*: *enter pwd for your user*
# passwd
*enter new password for user root*
# ^D

Comments

[enzotib]

Have you defined a root password on installation? However you can try launching synaptic from terminal with sudo.

[enzotib]

sudo synaptic

[clerksx]

You should never launch graphical apps using sudo (or you risk all sorts of issues, notably ~/.Xauthority owner changing and all the issues that come with that). Use gksudo or kdesudo instead.

[Davor Josipovic]

What if root password was not provided during install (i.e. root user is disabled for logon) and one wants this to stay that way? See here: wiki.debian.org/Root