I am sorry to ask this same old question but I just want the ability to login as root like I can in Slackware. I did a search and all the posts I've read seem to be reduced to borderline flame wars on the perils and pitfalls when using root.I've always used root to compile packages, kernels etc. without any problems. I don't care much for su, sudo, fakeroot or whatever else you want call it. All I am asking for is a simple answer(s) to my question please.

Thanks in advance
Frank

P.S Have not used Debian since Etch so be easy on me people.

Do you mean the simple procedure of logging into a session with:
Login: root
Password: *******
or automatically log in as root (perhaps even into a GUI)?
If it is the latter, it will definitely start a discussion.

I want to login into a gui as root with a password.(already have a root password) In Etch I could do just that but don't remember if I had to edit something or it just installed with the ability to login as root.

Frank

You should care. The fact that you did doesn't legitimize continuing a bad habit: two wrongs don't make a right.
*Best practices, "doing things the Linux way", are based on design principals like separation of privileges and not the misguided result of mistaking laziness for convenience.


You can on the command line NP. If you meant X11 / Xorg then this depends on the DE you use. For GNOME search /etc for GDM-related stacks and for KDE search /etc for KDM configuration files.
**Running X itself is already problematic in the way it (ab)uses resources (Xorg alone lists 21 code execution vulns, 18 buffer overflows, 7 DoS and more memory corruption vulns than you would want to know about) and running X and any X-based applications as root is a clear security risk and it makes things easier to fsck up good.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks unSpawn for your help. However, that doesn't answer my question. If a moderator cannot or will not help me then no one else will I think. Maybe you should delete this thread before it gets anymore off topic. I'll just go search another forum for some help

Thanks again

Frank

Whats difficult about searching /etc/ for GNOME or KDE Display Manager configuration files? Did you actually try something like 'find /etc/ -type f -iname \*gdm\* -o -iname \*kdm\* -print0 2>/dev/null| xargs -0 -iX grep -Hi root 'X';'?

The answer was a very good answer, if you are looking for guidance. If, on the other hand, you are looking for spoon-feeding, how could a better answer have been given? Without knowing which DE you are using, it would be unrealistic to expect unSpawn to type detailed instructions for all four major DEs.

Perhaps if you don't know what to change to allow you to log into the display manager as root then you ought to learn that before you consider logging in as root?
If you know better than the people telling you not to do something then why do you need their help?

This has been covered multiple times, if you really want to do it, use the forum search and you will find enough threads to keep you going on with.

I found some old info I had on Debian. I keep a big pile of notes on Linux and found what I needed.It was really simple, no terminal needed. Now I can login as root when I need to.

Thanks everyone
Frank

Can you post solution for others to benfit from it & mark thread solved?

Nice that you found a solution for this.
Now may I kindly ask you to detach your machine from the Net?
I don't care that you run your machine as root, but as soon as you do this and use software that connects to the Net (like browser or e-mail client) I see your machine as potentially compromised. It would be nice if you don't bother us with Spam, DDOS attacks or brute-forcing our servers just because of not understanding a proper security concept.

2 members found this post helpful.

First of all, to unSpawn I am very sorry this smarta$$ post:
That was uncalled for and again, I apologize. You were just trying to help me.

To everyone else,thank you for your input as well as it helped alot.

To TobiSGD
You seem to think you know all about me. However, I do not spam, brute-force or DDOS. Hell, I do alot of work in windows so yea, I have a pretty good idea about security concepts. Ok, enough of that. Tobi, I understand your point even if it seemed snippy. At least to me it does.

Anyway, Thank You All

PS. Sorry to take so long to post.

1 members found this post helpful.

I never said that you will do that. I said that it is not very difficult to compromise a machine that is run as root and opens itself to the net with using software like browsers or an email client, so that others can use your machine for something like that. May be you should keep in mind that this is not only annoying to other people, who are spammed, DDOSed or brute-forced from a zombie-computer, but that this also can have serious consequences for you. I can imagine that it would be pretty difficult to explain to the police that it is not your pirated content (or worse, not your childporn) that your computer is hosting to the net.

Sorry, but your initial question proved you wrong. Just use su on the commandline to compile your kernels or install packages, it is not necessary at all to run the whole X environment as root and actually it is a very bad habit security wise.

1 members found this post helpful.

and it voids your warranty