need to make everything work with user access
 

after reading a lot of posts, ive become paranoid about logging in as root and doing everyday tasks. i tried adding a user using 'adduser' and logged in successfully, but none of the programs, including 'startx' work...i know this will work if i change the permissions of the /usr/X11R6/bin/startx binary, but damn...do i have to do that for every program out there if i want to log in as a user?

please help...i dont know where to start and have a very vague understanding of chmod chown chgrp, etc.
even after i RTFM
what im looking to achieve is something like a ubuntu setup where i can do everything as a normal user an d 'sudo root' is required only when i have to install progz or change admin files..

thanks in advance..i might not reply immediately cause my linux box is at my relatives place.

come on you guys..im sure all of you have working set ups with user access..HELP!

hey,

Delete the user you made, and re-make it using the -D switch for useradd. This creates the user's home and puts all the default files needed in there. Do so like this...

useradd -D username

That should do it...

oh, and afte you make the user, make a password for it (as root) like this...

passwd username <enter>

it'll prompt you for the password, then the confirmation...

Good luck...

thanx for the reply...

tried

useradd -D abcd

unfortunately the command doesnt work and i just get the help output...

$useradd -D abcd
usage: useradd [-u uid [-o]] [-g group] [-G group,...]
[-d home] [-s shell] [-c comment] [-m [-k template]]
[-f inactive] [-e expire ] [-p passwd] name
useradd -D [-g group] [-b base] [-s shell]
[-f inactive] [-e expire

and then it returns back to a prompt..'-d' doesnt work either..

Oops, my bad. The -D switch jsut shows what the default settings for new users are. ..

Just do, as root,

useradd username

and nothing else. This will create the new user, put a folder for the user in /home, and out all the neccesary files in said folder. Now you're good to go, and if it's not 4:20 yet you can then give this new user a passwd with, as root,

passwd username

and follow prompts...

Good luck, now go enjoy one...;-)

yeah...like i said ive already done that..but i cant even startx if i login with that created user (cause of permissions)..nor can i use any program..what i need is to set permissions such that everything is executable for the user and im only prompted for the root pass when i need to install a package or change system files...

Sorry man, I tried every option I could think of and I can't get it to work either.

I don't get it, I got this to work on my Mandrake box...what did I do different?

Hopefully somebody else chimes in and shows us the light, cuz I'm out of ideas...

Sorry to be of so little help....

hey no problem...thanx anyway!

make sure that /usr/X11R6/bin/startx is set as group of users or that everybody has +x access
you can do this by
if it's incorrect, change it
also, can you do basic commands such as ls, cp, mv, etc?

Why couldn't you just add the user to /etc/sudoers (do this using the visudo command as root).

This way, you'd be able to sudo any commands that require "higher" permissions.

If you're using Slackware there is a "adduser" script that asks all the questions plus some that are needed to add a user and set it up. I've had that work for me just fine.

even after i chmod 777 /usr/X11R6/bin/startx and log in as the user, and try startx

i get somethine like:
failed to connect to x server.
PAM Authentication failed
Probably the user does not have console ownership

Try:

touch /var/lock/console/USERNAME
(you do this as root and with your non-root username as USERNAME)

thanx ddu_..that removed the pam authentication problem..only thing for me it was /var/run/console/username

however x starts up until the nvidia screen flashes and then exits out again with the following error:

gnome-session failed to load libhowl..no such file or directory

i tried changine permissions of libhowl (chmod 777)...but it didnt work...any suggestions?