Is it possible to make a linux installation without any users or login it all? I mean having it how windows 95 used to be: The computer just boots up right into your command line or gui and you don't need log in.

I don't just want the system to automatically log in to a specific user account, I specifically want there to be no such thing as a user account on the system.

If anyone has seen this type of linux distro or knows how to make it happen, please fill me in.

I've got a feeling this might require re-writing a part of kernel source code. I'd like to avoid that if possible.

...Maybe down the line, if I get the above to happen, I would program a way to add password protection to commands or files on a function by function basis.

Welcome to LQ!

I think that you're asking Linux to be something other than it is. Users are an integral part of the OS and you can't really rip them out or ignore them.

I think this is possible, although I personally believe it is a bad idea. There have been several threads on that topic here, so do a little searching and you'll probably find something. However, you will be automatically logging in as a specific user.
This already exists in Linux and is called sudo. The point of sudo is to give permission to normal users to run specific commands with root privileges without having to know root's password.


If you have some specific scenario in mind, post it and we'll see how it can be done without writing your own OS.

You will need a super user, and atleast 1 user i believe, every file has an owner, if they are not owned by root, then they must be owned by someone else, if they are owned by root, you must be root to have adequete permissions to the files.

You may want no users but some services use them, such as apache (nobody) etc.

I think the best way is to auto login to a shared user or something, and use su for when configuring etc.

Why are you trying to achieve this? we may be able to advise a better solution

I've read up on the arguements on why it's a bad idea. I really do understand everyone's point, but I don't need a repeat of all those threads. I just need to know how to do it, if possible.

The point is basically to simplify file structure on the hard drive and actually get rid of permissions. It's for my portable computer. It is always at my side and no one has ever or will ever touch the machine without me watching over their shoulder. I don't want a user name or password to ever be required for anything other than a web site login.

At the very least, I could set it to log in automatically as root (yes, I understand this is a bad idea and I don't want to hear any more about that). The problem then is with the files. Files are stored in a different place on the hard drive depending on which user is using the machine. I don't want the files to be in a directory based on user name, I want all the files to be in generic top-level directories.

That would mean redefining the paths for all the default user directories, and where a few of the shortcuts in my gui are pointing to. That's probably not hard to do, but it's only an easy substitute for what i really want.

If the only way to do it is to rewrite a lot of source code, then I'd appreciate a few pointers in the right direction; like which of the source files deal with interpreting user login and privelages.

If I am going to just have root do an auto-login... for posterity, is there a way to give the 'root' user a different alias? If I must have 1 user, I'd at least like it to have my name. (Creating a user other than root and giving it full privelages is already making the system have 2 users, defeating the point of what i want to see.)

btw, ethics, I'm finding the link in your signature (the file system explanation) extremely useful. Thanks very much.

why so lazy? why not just learn to do it the proper way? you end up causing yourself 10x more work than just using the OS the way it was intended to begin with.

This idea is a bit like buying a car and then modifying it to become a boat. Theoretically possible, but hardly worth the effort.
If you want to avoid using a password, you can certainly do that.

And this is hard to resist: If you want something like Windows 95, then maybe you should get.......WINDOWS 95!!!
(The very thought turns my stomach)

I'm going to agree with pixellany. If the no-user or single user situation is critical for you, Linux is a poor choice and you would be much better off using Windows.

I've been using windows on the laptop for a while, but windows is hardly versatile. Besides, any windows after 98 has users just like linux. In windows XP I'm still stuck with just renaming the administrator and having it auto-login.

My problem with windows the gui. It's not easy to make the windows interface do what I want and look how I need it to. It's been very easy for me to customize linux guis.

There is a reason for this. If even Microsoft has started implementing users, you might want to consider joining the parade.

You want to play with lit dynamite, the answers you seek are here. Took me all of one search to find it.