"Authentication Failure" in Terminal AFTER logging in

[4aDummy]

I'm sure you have seen this question many times b4. Its a newbie question and I'm a Newbie( to linux ). I'm running Mint 20 and an AMD based system and everything is working quite smoothly except when I try to get root in the terminal. Anytime it asks for my password (the same one I use to log in), it gives me the failure message. I'm confused. Any help would be great.

 

[darry1966]

Based on Ubuntu - use sudo example sudo leafpad then will ask for password and away you go.

 

[Lord Boltar]

What keyboard layout are you using? Some keyboard layouts require extra software to be installed so it gets interpreted correctly particularly special characters
Also make sure Caps Lock is not on

Also you can try and change the root password

sudo passwd root

 

[kc1di]

Hello 4aDummy Welcome to Linux and Linux.org
Mint does not use the su command it uses sudo command to gain root privileges. For a explanation of the differences between su and sudo see sudo vs su

 

[stan]

To become the root user in Linux Mint, use:

sudo -i

Or:

sudo su