On Tue, Mar 01, 2011 at 10:55:16PM -0800, me wrote:
Package: installation-reports
Version: 6.0.0
Besides other problems with my new installation of Debian 6.0.0 (stable), I
am unable to sign in as root (I do have the right password). The sign-in
screen (which is for GNOME only) has only my user account listed besides
other. When I click other and put in root or su- and then insert
the correct password I get the message Authentication failure. This is a
i386 version DVD#1 ISO downloaded from the Debian web-sight onto a MS
Windows machine. Then, burned to a DVD+R disk using Roxio easy media
creator 10 software to create a boot-able disk. I have two HD's, one with
Windows XP and the other HD new and blank that I partitioned (using guided
partitioning with LVM option three- home,root,swap.1. temp, usr
partitions) and installed Debian on.
Inside of GNOME going to Update Manager, Software Sources, Synoptic
Package Manager, and Users and Groups (under the System/Administration
header) I can input the root password and then work as an administrator in
those dialog boxes. But, after becoming an Administrator for this
session, in the Network Settings, and Time Day dialog boxes it says
Authentication Needed with no way to input a password though I don't need
to re-input the password in again going back to say the Update Manager.
When I set myself up as Administrator for this session I still cannot do
any root work in a terminal screen.
Also, when I logout of GNOME I can only turn off the machine and when I
turn on the machine I can only log into GNOME. The only way to get a
command line is to open a terminal within GNOME. I don't know if this is
normal or not as I am new to Linux.
As this seems to be a major bug, could it be that I somehow have a corrupted
DVD, as there are a couple of other problems I also have at this early date.
(grub doesn't list my Windows OS at boot time though it mentioned it
during the installation, and also my two HD's were listed as SCSI instead of
IDE during installation).
I do not have an internet connection for the machine I have installed Debian
on so I cannot send in any scripts that were generated. If all else fails,
could I simply re-partition and reinstall to totally get rid of everything
on the HD I put Debian on. The only thing with this would be grub which I
think is on the MBR of my HD with the windows OS on it, would that be a
problem or would a new grub be generated along with the new installation.
Thanks and hope you can help, Stan Ryan.
Given that running X as root has long (pretty much as long as X has
existed) been considered a bad idea, most display managers (kdm/gdm/etc)
don't permit root to login to X by default. You can change the config
to permit it, although I wouldn't recommend it.
So some options you have are:
Login as a normal user and use 'su -' to run as root temporarily, or
sudo, or gtksu or similar to allow root to run a single application in
X temporarily.
Change the config of the display manager to permit root.
I never login to X as root and use the other options instead.
But either way, it is working as it should.
As someone else mentioned, left control + left alt + F1 (through F6)
should give you text consoles where root can login.
--
Len Sorensen
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive:
http://lists.debian.org/20110302165529.gw...@caffeine.csclub.uwaterloo.ca
