Re: [Sheflug] How To Saga

[(Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 05-Aug-05 lesleyb wrote:
> (Ted Harding) wrote:
>> On 02-Aug-05 Alec Melling wrote:
>>>Hi,
>>>[now snipped]
>>>There is of course a problem. I am using Kubuntu which as you
>>>may or may not know does not have a root account. You use sudo or
>>>kdesu to get things done.
>>>[now snipped]
>> 
>> Regardless of the outcome of Alec's saga (and I do hope it works out!)
>> I find myself very surprised at Ubuntu for not having a root account!
>> [snipped]
> 
> As I have said all along
> 
> UBUNTU DOES HAVE A ROOT ACCOUNT

I seem to have drawn some flak on this issue! To make it clear:
I took Alec Melling's statement (above) about Ubuntu (which I have
not yet tried) to mean what it said -- that Ububtu "does not have
a root account."

 From other people's comments, it seems clear that in fact root
is present in Ubuntu, just locked in a box, and a user has to do
more work than usual in order to open the box.

Given this, then my doubts and queries about "who owns this and
who does that" are of course irrelevant, since the answer is in
fact "root" -- as usual!

> It's just hidden away and sudo is being used to provide an
> apparent way of avoiding people using the root account.
> 
> The fact the account used in it's place needs to be guarded as
> strongly as the root account of course makes the whole thing a
> complete fag. imnsho :)

Well, I'm very much inclined to the same view. On the one hand,
if any user is to get full root powers then that user might
as well be called "root", and have done with it.

For those usages where a user may need restricted root powers
for certain applications, then surely the usual route of setting
the permissions of an executable file by "chmod u+s" will do?
Similarly, "chmod g+s" in appropriate cases.

I still have one final question about Ubuntu (which I'm still
interested in trying out sometime): If one does "activate" the
root account -- e.g. as suggested by Alex Hudson: "It doesn't
have a password set by default, but 'sudo passwd root' fixes
that if you like logging in as root." -- does one then have a
normal system with root just like all other roots in the
universe?

Best wishes to all,
Ted.


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Date: 05-Aug-05                                       Time: 19:07:20
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