Strange title.
I have been attempting to learn Linux for quite a while. I have a lot of candles on my birthday cakes, so learning new things is sometimes a struggle. I am quite comfortable with Windows. I am not ready to disclose the current distro that I am using; however, I would like to find one that does not require the incessant authentication. Please do not tell me about security & blah, blah, blah, etc. I know the risks. I do not desire to login as Root, I just want to be left alone to move around, check for updates, look at files--in short, to use my computer the way I want to without continually being required to play "Mother may I?". Is that too much to ask?
If someone knows of a distro that sounds like what I am searching for, please let me know.
Thanks, so much.
Windrush

from the pov of slackware user:

old versions of slackware, like slackware 10, 11, and maybe 12, would allow blank passwords. You still needed a username, but at least the password could be blank so you just hit enter...

but if you want to use your computer to do things like access your bank account, then these old versions have been left behind and cannnot be updated with all the modern libraries... there have just been too many changes to both kernel and third party software, like web browsers...

Today's Slackware-15 does not allow empty password field. However, though it will complain that the password is weak, it will allow a single space as a password.

But ater logging in, that's not what's in the way of using your computer.

It's generally screen-locking features that ask to re-authenticate to wake up your screen.

This can be a pita--especially when watching a movie, and the screen just goes blank, and then wants a password.

All of this screen-locking can be stopped with the correct configurations. The challenge is, is that these configurations are not part of the distro, but more a part of which desktop environmet and screen compositor is in use: i.e., gnome, kde, xfce combined with X11 or wayland, as well as which screensaver is in use.

So you have to figure out which of those your mystery distro that you did not disclose is using, and edit the appropriate settings. Usually a quick search will cough up something useful.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for the response.
For clarification purposes, I do not object to logging in or authenticating one time. My issue is the continual nagging to authenticate in order to do, what I consider, normal everyday tasks.

Examples would be:
1. looking at files on my windows drive.
2. Checking for updates.
3. Changing a setting.
4. Inspecting partitions.

I consider these actions to be normal tasks for using my computer. Why, then, do I need to ask for permission to accomplish them?

I do not do financial things on the computer.

I am finding that putting up with this "nonsense" (aka BS) as I get older is becoming more and more difficult.

Thanks,
Windrush

Welcome to LQ, Windrush!

I find this an actually great and desirable feature!

Whenever I get a permission error, I immediately ALWAYS type:
sudo !!
(this could be shortened to a single letter alias like s<enter>, and sudo set up to never require a password)
(I personally have NEVER had even one instance where I did not want to do this for safety/security, so as OP says: let's NOT discuss safety/security here!)

Hopefully some Guru can think of a way to implement this!

I thought of putting code in .bashrc which automatically does this when a command exits with status 1, but I'm not sure that this would always work out.

Maybe you could `chmod +s` on the commands where you always need sudo.

It would be like adding a new feature to bash: set +/-nopermerr

I think a lot of people would actually like bash to work this way, given that they ALWAYS want to `sudo !!` any such error!

@Windrush: would it be acceptable if: all you had to do was just type s<enter> whenever you got such an error? The advantage would be: being aware of how standard Linux works. You could also add the chmod +s to commands like apt and partitioning, so you wouldn't need the s.

Make sure you are performing a full shutdown with Windows. By default it hibernates which puts its filesystems in an unclean state. With any distribution you should be able to mount your Windows drive(s) as read/write for your user.

Its distribution dependent but many now days will display a desktop message when updates are available and many do not require a password. You can configure your particular user to run apt, yum or whatever package manager tool without a password.

I would not consider changing settings or whatever you deem as inspecting partitions as everyday tasks. I do run automated tasks.

You should be able to configure your user in different ways to accomplish your goals with just about any distribution.
You can use sudo without a password to run any command requiring root privileges.
You can switch to root via sudo -i and enter a password once or configure with no password. Do whatever you want and then exit to switch back to your normal user.
You can give your user root privileges regardless i.e. no sudo

In other words, it's linux. And it's your machine - do whatever the hell you want.

I guess it's possible to run as root on some distros.

Might try Linux Mint. Pretty easy distro.

Requiring authentication for root-type tasks is a good thing; it helps promote system security. But I do have several ideas:

Use a distro that, out-of-the-box, does not default to sudo, but rather expects you to su to acquire root privileges. That way, you can su once, perform all the root-type tasks you need to perform for as long as you need to perform them, then exit back to user mode at your convenience.

If you use a distro that defaults to sudo, establish a root password. Then you can use su once, perform the root-type tasks you need to perform etc. (This is what I do with distros that have succumbed to Ubuntu's creepy sudo fetish.)

If you use a distro that defaults to sudo, use sudo su. Then you can use sudo su once, perform the root-type tasks you need to perform etc.

Thanks for all the ideas.

My knowledge of Linux is pretty limited--especially when it comes to what I refer to as programming.

From what I gather from the responses, I do not think that what I desire to do can be done, at least with the knowledge I possess.

When I mentioned viewing my Windows files, what I should have said was something like this.
(When I needed to import firefox bookmarks from my windows drive to the linux distro, I consider that to be a routine task--NOOO! It is as though I wanted to launch the space shuttle. Why am I required to authenticate for my files on my computer.)
Next
(When I needed to change settings, all I wanted to do was change the mouse pointer scheme. Second attempt at launching the space shuttle.)
Next
(For inspecting partitions--I wanted to add a partition to install a different distro to check it out. This time it was a repeat launch for a moon landing.)

Get my point?

OK, I'm going a bit overboard.

I am in no way attempting to turn Linux into Windows.

In the original post I stated that security was not a concern, and that it need not be addressed in any responses.
That didn't work. All the references to SU & SUDO still require some level of authentication. I authenticated during login--I feel that that should be sufficient.

So, I must apologize for what probably seems to convey that I am a total ---hole. That is absolutely not the case.
I am very frustrated, and beginning to hate penguins.

I think that it is past time for this old guy to make pillow tracks.

Thank you all for your tolerance.

Goodnite,
Windrush

First of all, removing passwords and authentication is a bad habit. Not now and not you, but even 20 years ago it was a very bad habit.
Therefore the guys who created those distros decided to make it really hard to remove. Right now I believe you are frustrated, because you need to learn a lot to be able to completely eliminate it. And you won't want to do it in the end.

Regarding "accessing windows files": it is a relatively simple task, just you need to understand the user management on windows and linux are incompatible (so for example the user on windows does not exist on linux), the computer has no idea who you are or what your own files are, you need to teach it (=configure your system).
As for partitioning or the mouse: you have to learn how they work, flying to the moon is a bit more difficult than that (I guess).

I was a big fan of using root, but eventually got dragged into the sudo charade when the lemmings that develop Fedora decided they had to jump off the Ubuntu cliff.

Easy enough to arrange things to avoid continually entering password via visudo as mentioned above. Exercise your favourite search engine.

Actually, it sounds like you are!

Linux is a secure O/S, unlike Windows, whose first user is also 'root' user.

However, if you want to screw up, as a beginner, you can find distros that run as root.

(I think Fatdog64, SliTaz, & Puppy will do that.)

@OP: Don't worry too much about how you feel and don't make rash decisions.

You're a newbie and this is a bit like puberty for you. That stage of life when you suddenly know exactly what should be done, and you have your parent's flaws under the microscope, and you're asking "Why are we cursed with parents?" It will all pass

On su/sudo, answer yourself what would you want some hacker have access to? If you don't want your neighbour's kid buying his fancy new drone (or car!) with your credit card, keep the security up.

I've the luxury that nearly 100% of boxes are windows here, outside the data centres. A user running linux is unheard of. Even Windoze users don't get hacked. It's mobiles only that persistently get malware; spam mainly goes to .com emails, and folks who have it out there. So my passwords are weak, but I still use sudo. I did remove the need to enter the password every time.

Sudo has a configuration file called sudoers which allows you to fine-tune the command, for example to specify which commands you want to be able to use without having to give a password. This file has a special editor command visudo which you should always use as it checks the syntax of the file before allowing you to exit. Syntax errors in sudoers can stop sudo from working!

Using visudo is tricky but you only have to do it once.

That "authentication" can mean several things. If using debian, for example, it requires authentication to access other partitions, which can easily be avoided.

Where are you confronted with "authentication"?