I know this issue has been discussed before and many instructions indicate that Ubuntu does not set a root password.
I installed Ubuntu 22.04-desktop on a VM and I checked the /etc/shadow file and saw the following:
root:!:19768:0:99999:7:::I also installed Ubuntu 22.04 server, but its /etc/shadow is as follows:
root:*:19769:0:99999:7:::You can see that the second column in Ubuntu-desktop has an exclamation point (!) instead of an asterisk (*).
From this discussion I learned, it follows that * means password never established, ! means locked.
So does Ubuntu desktop set the root password first and then lock it?