Like this article? We recommend
Get Root and Remote Access (SSH)
Once the OS update is complete, you'll want to add a permanent root account to your OLPC for future use. This is accomplished by opening a terminal window and typing in the following:
sudo passwd root New UNIX password: <type in password> Retype new UNIX password: <type in password>
You can also add other users via the useradd command, and set a password for the olpc account. Why go through all this? Well, the simple reason is so you can gain remote SSH access to the OLCP. By default and for good reason, a user can access a remote system via SSH only if their account has been assigned a password.