I am a new user of SUSE Linux or OpenSUSE Linux servers. I need to change the password for root user account on SUSE or OpenSUSE desktop. How do I change the root password on SUSE / OpenSUSE Linux using command line options?

Introduction – You need to use the passwd command. It is used to update the user’s authentication token(s) i.e. password. Let us see how to change the root user password on SUSE Enterprise Linux system or OpenSUSE desktop/workstation.

How to change root password on SUSE or OpenSUSE

The procedure for changing the password of root is as follows:

1. First, log in to the SUSE server using ssh or console
2. Open a shell prompt and type the passwd command to change root password in OpenSUSE
3. The actual command to change the password for root on SUSE Linux is sudo passwd root

NOTE: Please note that vivek@suse-nixcraft:~> is my shell prompt. You need to type commands after the $ prompt.

SUSE change root password command

I am going to log in to my SUSE Linux 12.x/15.x server using the ssh command:
ssh vivek@suse-nixcraft
Once logged in enter the command passwd as follows:
vivek@suse-nixcraft:~> sudo passwd root
First you need to type the password for vivek user. After that the passwd command asks for the new password, which you will have to enter two times:

The next time you log in to a SUSE server/workstation, use the new password.

Slightly different procedure for changing passwords in SUSE

One can use the following procedure too:
vivek@suse-nixcraft:~> ssh user@your-centos-server-name-ip
Become a root user via the su command or sudo command:
vivek@suse-nixcraft:~> sudo -i
OR
vivek@suse-nixcraft:~> su -
Finally change your root user password:
passwd

Conclusion

This page explained the process for changing the password of root user using the passwd command on a SUSE.