Linux Terminal not accepting entered text

Question

I am using Raspbian, similar to Debian, and I am trying to login as superuser. I have ran both $su and $su - and both have required a password, but as I go to type in a password, none of the characters I type are displayed, and after i have typed in the whole password, it still does not think I have typed in anything. Copy and paste does not work, and I'm not sure quite what to do. I am a beginner when it comes to linux, so I might have missed an obvious step. Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

The Raspbian FAQ includes instructions for making a proper root account, which suggests that it doesn't come with one set up by default.

Pay particular attention to the first line:

Don't do this unless you're certain that you want and need a true root account. sudo will take care of root tasks for you nicely in almost all cases.

In other words, you'll probably find that you can skip doing the su that's failing, and instead just prefix the commands that need to run as the super-user with sudo.

For example, if you were supposed to do mkdir x/y/z then you'd do sudo mkdir x/y/z instead. You'll still be asked for a password, but it will be yours not a password for the root account.

If there are lots of commands you need to run as super user, you might find you can do sudo bash to enter a new shell with root privileges, then run the commands without needing the sudo prefix, then exit to get back to your normal shell.