On a new installed FreeBSD server, when you try to SSH to the server as root, you will end up in the below error.
error: PAM: authentication error for root from 10.1.XXX.XXX
This is because by default “root” logins are disabled in SSH. You will have to enable this in the “/etc/ssh/sshd_config”. In many forums, you will notice that people ask you not to enable this. What they argue is true, but when I in closed network, I want to be able to login as root for many reasons which is why I’m writing this up.
In the “/etc/ssh/sshd_config” file, make sure you have below lines for you to be able to use “root” login using SSH. If any of the line doesn’t exist, you can add it to the file or if it is commented out, uncomment it.
PermitRootLogin yes
PasswordAuthentication yes
AllowUsers root
