diff --git a/src/modules/users/SetPasswordJob.cpp b/src/modules/users/SetPasswordJob.cpp
index 4828aec93..5121a7632 100644
--- a/src/modules/users/SetPasswordJob.cpp
+++ b/src/modules/users/SetPasswordJob.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /* === This file is part of Calamares - <http://github.com/calamares> ===
  *
- *   Copyright 2014-2015, Teo Mrnjavac <teo@kde.org>
+ *   Copyright 2014-2017, Teo Mrnjavac <teo@kde.org>
  *
  *   Calamares is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
  *   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -59,6 +59,20 @@ SetPasswordJob::exec()
         return Calamares::JobResult::error( tr( "Bad destination system path." ),
                                             tr( "rootMountPoint is %1" ).arg( destDir.absolutePath() ) );
 
+    if ( m_userName == "root" &&
+         m_newPassword.isEmpty() ) //special case for disabling root account
+    {
+        int ec = CalamaresUtils::System::instance()->
+                 targetEnvCall( { "passwd",
+                                  "-dl",
+                                  m_userName } );
+        if ( ec )
+            return Calamares::JobResult::error( tr( "Cannot disable root account." ),
+                                                tr( "passwd terminated with error code %1." )
+                                                    .arg( ec ) );
+        return Calamares::JobResult::ok();
+    }
+
     QString encrypted = QString::fromLatin1(
                             crypt( m_newPassword.toLatin1(),
                                    QString( "$6$%1$" )
diff --git a/src/modules/users/UsersPage.cpp b/src/modules/users/UsersPage.cpp
index 9766843fd..87e64deb1 100644
--- a/src/modules/users/UsersPage.cpp
+++ b/src/modules/users/UsersPage.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /* === This file is part of Calamares - <http://github.com/calamares> ===
  *
- *   Copyright 2014-2015, Teo Mrnjavac <teo@kde.org>
+ *   Copyright 2014-2017, Teo Mrnjavac <teo@kde.org>
  *
  *   Portions from the Manjaro Installation Framework
  *   by Roland Singer <roland@manjaro.org>
@@ -138,6 +138,12 @@ UsersPage::createJobs( const QStringList& defaultGroupsList )
                                     ui->textBoxRootPassword->text() );
         list.append( Calamares::job_ptr( j ) );
     }
+    else
+    {
+        j = new SetPasswordJob( "root",
+                                "" ); //explicitly disable root password
+        list.append( Calamares::job_ptr( j ) );
+    }
 
     j = new SetHostNameJob( ui->textBoxHostname->text() );
     list.append( Calamares::job_ptr( j ) );