If you have the password set for root as indicated then you would not need to connect as root from remote. (By default root connections from remote is blocked).
Instead you could use su - and connect from your terminal to a root session locally.
So many thanks Francis, the less secured solution worked like a charm. But tell me please what is this xhost si… command do? and does this mean I can never log as root as before?
It allows the root user to open an X application to your session.
See: man xhost
This is unrelated. If you applied properly the reset-root-password doc, you should be
able to log as root in textual mode. I don’t know (and don’t want to known) for a
graphical session.