Enabling the root user on vMA 4.1

While using the vMA 4.1 as vi-admin, I noticed that a couple commands I tried to run (for example yum update) would fail because I was not root. When I tried to issue ‘su’ I could not become root either. I found the following article virtuallyGhetto VMware Scripts & Resources with instructions on how to enable the root account.

sudo vi /etc/passwd

When prompted for a password I entered the vi-admin password. As suggested I changed the entry for

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/sbin/nologin

to look like

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

However, after enabling the account I still could not login — using root and the vi-admin password. I then logged back in as vi-admin and entered

sudo passwd root

And defined a password for the root account. I am now able to login as root with my root password.