Hi, As a sysadmin, I can't say that enough: Login as root is the worst plague that can exist. As a workstation user, the problem might be way less important, but still, there is a very good reason why the sudo program was pushed forward in GNU/Linux distro like Ubuntu.
If you want to mark-drag-drop you can actually use sudo to launch your filebrowser (such as sudo nautilus) and it will be acting as root while using your xorg/xauth credential (so the window appear on your desktop). There is no need to launch a whole environment, from which widgets and applications are launched, as the root user, One of the main reason why sudo is important is because you should NOT TRUST all programs! The principe of the 'multitude of eyesball' has been proven wrong in the last few months more than I care to remember. This is the same reason why you should './configure && make' under a user and 'sudo make install' ... I'm not saying that 'sudo su - ' should be illegal, it is very useful if you intend to run lots of command as root. At least, it leaves a trace of which user became root. (This might be a bit less important for your computer, if your the only user, but...). Other than wanting to look like Microsoft Windows (old versions), I can't think of the reason why Ubuntu would have change the behaviors to refuse 'root' login. I clearly remebered times where your X would simply forbidd you to log as root (or give you a very very big warning message). Think about it, even in the world of Windows, they are moving away from those 'login as root' for normal operation (and ask a password to be promoted to administrator privileges for a specific operations). Using administrator (or root) is asking for for virus (wondered why GNU/Linux has so little virus? simply because runing as user does limit a lot the scope of an infectation), for trojan horse and for random crash. You must remember that root does have access to a lot of system call that are not available to normal user (such as using those last few % of disk space)... Like I said, maybe I've been managing (too much) my workstation as servers, but I think you should be very aware of the implication of login as root on X. P. -- Pascal Charest, skype: pascal.charest Free software consultant @ Laboratoire Phoenix http://www.labsphoenix.com On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 7:23 AM, Leslie Satenstein <[email protected]>wrote: > I find that using the default SUDO is worse then using a root logon. > > Fortunately, both UBUNTU and Fedora allow you to log in to gnome as root. > > When I use root, it is mainly with Gnome for "mark-drag-drop/delete" of > files, especially for easy cleanup of a subset of files in a directory or > dragging files to the mounted backup drive. > > Sudo apt-get is one thing, File manipulation is another. I normally use > synaptic / yumex rather then switching to the root logon. > > > > *------------------ > > * > > Regards > * > Mr. Leslie > * > *Leslie Satenstein > * > > mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]> > mailto [email protected] > www.itbms.biz > > > --- On *Thu, 11/19/09, concepts <[email protected]>* wrote: > > > From: concepts <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [MLUG] setuidv ARRRRRRRRRGGGGgggg! > To: "Montreal Linux Users Group" <[email protected]> > Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 11:04 PM > > > > There is no root password on Ubuntu. You need to reboot in single user > > mode if you wish to be root. The steps are here: > > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecoveryMode > > > > > > Basicly, it's: > > 1)Reboot > > 2)Press ESC to see grub menu if it's hidden > > 3)Select (Recovery) > > 4)See r...@machine:~# prompt... you are now root with no X and limited > > services > > 5)Do what you have to do... > > 6)Reboot > > > > There is also a LiveCD recovery method: > > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCdRecovery > > > > I strongly advise again setting a root password in Ubuntu, unless you > > know what you are doing. But you can if you want to because it won't > > break anything. > > > > David Montminy > > _______________________________________________ > > mlug mailing list > > [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> > > > https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca > > > I was being ironic. I know there is no root password nor do I have the > intention of having one. > > However, starting as root AND with the LiveCD has changed nothing at all. > ALso > Synaptic starts and then disappears... > > Oh woe is me. :-( > > André. > > -- > Omnia quaecumque vultis ut faciant vobis homines et vos facite illis (Mt.: > 7,12) > > _______________________________________________ > mlug mailing list > [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> > https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca > > > _______________________________________________ > mlug mailing list > [email protected] > https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca > >
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