- Getting ROOT access in mandrake 9.1
- Posted by y2jayplus1 on July 23rd, 2003
Hi folks,
I have handled majority of the probs on my install and everything seems
to be ticking over nicely, but my main prob is switching to ROOT user to
gain admin access esp in TERM.
I'm used to logging in as root before starting the session but i can't
find an option for me to do this in 9.1. I've tried looking in Mandrake
Control Centre and found not a lot.
Can anyone help me to log on as ROOT.
TIA
Jay
- Posted by Davide Bianchi on July 23rd, 2003
y2jayplus1 <y2jayplus1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
You can just type "root" as username and then the password, or, once
logged in as normal user, use su - to gain root privileges.
Davide
- Posted by Davide Bianchi on July 23rd, 2003
y2jayplus1 <y2jayplus1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
I think you can type another username, not sure if you have to do
something before...
Otherwise there is always the bad-ugly solution: turn off the graphical
login, use the normal login in terminal mode and then activate the
X-environment.
Davide
- Posted by Michael Heiming on July 23rd, 2003
y2jayplus1 <y2jayplus1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
....
Nope, you don't need it, never ever log in to X as root, common newbie
mistake. Use 'su -' or 'sudo' there is NO need to login as root.
--
Michael Heiming
Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM
- Posted by Yosef Meller on July 23rd, 2003
y2jayplus1 wrote:
If you're in a terminal, just use the command 'su' to switch temporarily
to root, do whatever, then exit. Other option is sudo ($ info sudo).
Hope this is what you needed. Have fun...
This is frowned upon, but if you really want to... check in your
/etc/passwd file what shell is defined for root. Sometimes it's nologin,
for security reasons. Change that to the shell of your choice.
If you're talking about X, I can't help you.
- Posted by Ed Murphy on July 23rd, 2003
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 11:21:04 +0000, y2jayplus1 wrote:
If you need to run a GUI program as root, then simply launch it from the
term session where you used "su". (Actually, "su -" will probably give
you better results, as noted elsewhere in the thread.)
No idea what you're on about here, though someone who actually runs
Mandrake may be able to figure out what you're doing.
- Posted by Molchun on July 23rd, 2003
y2jayplus1 wrote:
And why would you need that? Are you suicidal? 
- Posted by Ed Murphy on July 24th, 2003
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 22:56:46 +0000, y2jayplus1 wrote:
What's the error message? Depending on the situation, maybe there's
a way around it that doesn't require running GUI stuff as root.
- Posted by y2jayplus1 on July 24th, 2003
Ed Murphy wrote:
Problem is now solved and I was right to think it was I was not root
when installing the java-plugin within mozilla.
I can't remember the exact wording in the error message but it was along
the lines of "installtion denied", and that was that.
I solved it by logging in as root in text mode installed the plugin and
logged out. Now I found a flaw in that plan as the plugin was installed
for root only. So back to the drawing board.
Big learning curve 
)
BTW I'm using Mandrake 9.1 using the gui plus using kde
TIA
Jay
- Posted by Peter T. Breuer on July 24th, 2003
y2jayplus1 <y2jayplus1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
You don't install a java plugin "from within mozilla"! You put the
plugin in the plugins directory, as root, of course, since it's a
system area.
So no - you are not right. You are mistaking a symptom for a cause,
through not having the foggiest idea of what you are doing, itself
a symptom of using a gui.
No. No learning, hence confusion.
Then DON'T!
Peter
- Posted by y2jayplus1 on July 24th, 2003
Peter T. Breuer wrote:
Ok, fair shout. What is the best way to start then?
Jay
- Posted by Peter T. Breuer on July 24th, 2003
y2jayplus1 <y2jayplus1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
Read a howto when you want to find out about something. Then see how
using the gui tools manipulates the files the howto says to manipulate
directly. You should use multiple sources of information to get
perspective - which is what you lack at present.
Peter
- Posted by y2jayplus1 on July 24th, 2003
Peter T. Breuer wrote:
howto - I seen those before with suse. Forgot about them, thanks for
the heads up )
Jay
- Posted by Michael Heiming on July 24th, 2003
y2jayplus1 <y2jayplus1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
Try www.tldp.org, you can search there for a particular howto.
--
Michael Heiming
Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM
- Posted by y2jayplus1 on July 26th, 2003
Alex Yung wrote:
100% Spot on. Just looking for a cheap alternative which will keep me
thinking instead of M$ telling me what I should be doing. If linux
keeps me interested, it's linux I shall stay, but it's looking for the
right distro for me before I'll pay.
Thanks for the advice.
Jay
