Well put, I cringe & am glad it's not my system every time I see a post where someone says "log in as root " . We should have 1st rule of linux club DO NOT LOGIN AS ROOT :)
Tricia On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 10:41 PM, Pascal Charest <[email protected]>wrote: > 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 >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > mlug mailing list > [email protected] > https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca > > -- ___..____._..___._..___. ...|...|___/..|..|......|..|___| ...|...|.....\..|..|___.|..|.....| "I am always doing what I cannot do yet in order to learn how to do it." -Vincent Van Gogh
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