<Well, I still would like to know the angstrom/Pandora alternative to usrmod >
But here is the manual method to fix this.
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So my Root was broke and would not source the bashrc file and customize my prompt....
Start by checking the shell type for the user. In my case 'root' was not source-ing the profile when I 'su' to root from a terminal.
I ran the following to check the shell.
		 $ cat /etc/passwd | grep -i root
and got this:
		 
root:x:0:0:root:/home/root:/bin/sh
AH, could it be? Now is the time to wish you had learned 'vi'
HINTS:
		 
i - enters insert mode to edit the file.
		 
esc - exits insert mode
		 
:wq to save and exit
		 
:q! to just exit
Now to change your shell you must edit the
 /etc/passwd file and the secret files. But they must be locked out during editing to prevent corruption by other theoretical users.
The best way to edit 
/etc/passwd, or shadow or group file is to use 
vipw command. Traditionally (under UNIX and Linux) if you use 
vi to edit
 /etc/passwd file and same time a user try to change a password while root editing file, then the user's change will not entered into file. To avoid this problem and to put a lock while editing file, use 
vipw and 
vigr command which will edit the files 
/etc/passwd and
 /etc/group respectively. If you pass -s option to these command, then they will edit the shadow versions of those files i.e. /etc/shadow and /etc/gshadow, respectively.
The main purpose of locks is to prevent file corruption. Do not use vi or other text editor to edit password file. Syntax:
		 vipw -s : Edit /etc/passwd file
		 vigr -s : Edit /etc/group file
This will avoid /etc/shadow file corruption.
Change /etc/passwd 'root' info to  this:
		 root:x:0:0:root:/home/root:/bin/bash
exit and close all terminals. opn a new terminal and su to root. See new prompt!
========================================
Check your files first [see examples below]. mine were also missing!
# ~/.profile: executed by Bourne-compatible login shells.
	if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
	  . ~/.bashrc
	fi
# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
	export PS1='\h@\w/# '
The discovery of vipw was here:
http://www.cyberciti...roup-files.html
The Application and solution to my problem was all here!