Same problem here with HTC desire when i restart my cell pbone it is going to be normal mode, why its hapend i have root my phone every time when i restart my phone please share with us how to root andriod phone with su command or terminal commands and last one how to download root user or files. But i think both will work depeding on the Android Version. You probably got the shell command wrong.
On Android every app is a user in Linux parlance, while Android users are something else entirely. Approve the root permissions request that pops up.