In Mandriva 2007, one can't login as root any more when using any display manager. A messagebox pops up saying "Root logins are not allowed". How do I go about changing this. I know Linux fairly well, but I don't know where to begin to fix this. Any help will be great.

Logging in as root is not advised.

Log in as a normal user and use su or sudo.

If you really want it ... you must edit either the xdm-conf, gdm.conf or kdmrc file (depending on which one you are using).

Moved: This thread is more suitable in the Mandriva Forum and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Lately we seem to be getting a lot of threads regarding logging in as root on Mandriva. Take a look at this thread and hopefully it'll help you out. Disregard the rant by irlandes.

Not surprising Free 2007 worse than Mandrake 10.1. Leaving the root in a terrible mess especially on the 64 bit version.

On some of my 64bit versions it insists on a login on boot.
On others it comes in as a terminal and you have to login and startx Worse still they have removed halt and reboot, so the only way to close down is opening a terminal and using the halt command.

Those seem more like configuration issues than problems with the distro. All you need to do for Mandriva to start in a gui and show the login screen, is edit /etc/inittab and change the default runlevel to 5 from 3. Halt and reboot only show up if you are using a login manager such as KDM.

Thank you dxqcanada! I changed the root login allowed to true in all conf files you suggested and now I can login to root if I so desire.

I find that rather logging in a root, its better to go to run and type kdesu konqueror or what ever app you wish to use a root, saves logging in and out. Plus only that app hase root privliges.

Thats what I suggested in the thread I linked to above. There really is no need to login as root proper to edit conf file etc, but some people seem to like logging into a full X session as root. The problem is that doing so exposes you to the same type of problems that Windows users often experience because of working as an admin user all the time.

Reddazz - sorry didn't mean to steel your post, I hadn't followed the link.

No, I don't think you stole my post at all. Everyone is free to comment and discuss, so no worries.

That is no reason for the 2007 version to not work properly as root. The Mandrake versions were less hassle the problems with the latest versions have started with driva joining.

I would have thought they could have come up with a cleanly working version in 2007 that I could recommend as a substitute for Windoze. The only version that works reasonably well is Mandrake 10.1 since then LAMP does not work, and the root login and halt is a mess on 64 bit machines.

Why disregard it? I agree with him entirely.

I'm running SUSE 10.2 and I've got about 9 folders and files on my desktop with padlocks on which I cant get rid of because they were created by installers which went wrong and they are owned by 'root'. I know virtually no console commands or how to use them!

If I could log in as root I would be there for about 5-10 seconds to do what I need to do before logging out again. Instead I've spent the last 4 hours searching google and treads trying to find out how and not getting a straight answer! All I find is a load of "advanced users" saying you "should not log in a root, it's bad" without giving any thought for people who don't know as much as them.

This is absolutely ridiculous , where's the freedom of choice?!

AdamHawkins.net

Hawky - I think one of the reasons it says to ignore his post is because it give some bad advice, and not all the facts. irlandes failed to mention that processes e.g. programs such as firefox, kate etc. run with the privileges of the user who starts them. So if I'm logged in as richie and firefox goes horribly wrong for what ever reason, any destruction is contained to files richie can write to. If the same happened to firefox and it had been started by root, there is no damage control and the whole system can be destroyed. (I feel I want to point out nothing against firefox, and am sure it would never do anything like this, I just used it as an example because I'm using right now.)

irlandes - is right to say if it's your system and only you use it, do what you like, people only give the advise of not using root unless necessary because like me, they have found this out the hard way.

(I'm not to sure about the mystery of the su command, i find it really simple 'switch user' it does what it says on the tin. Ironically the method of changing icons on the desktop to run as root is the gui version of the su command).

Also my linux desktop is not set up the way I like it, and I personally think the default KDE settings look horrible, but I don't say that KDE has taken away my options because it does not come how I want it, I jsut change the things to what I want. this way I have more options not less, so i don't see how Mandriva disabling root logins by default takes away options, because you can add it back.

Sorry to rant on, it's just I've not read such a flawed post for so long, and thats why to ignore it, unlike i have by posting this, sorry.

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To remove those files, open a terminal e.g. xterm cd to /home/your user name/Desktop and then type su and enter the root password, (or better yet use sudo if you have set this up) then type rm the file name then exit root, with exit and the file is gone.
cd = change directory, rm = remove.

You may agree with him, but what he is advising is bad. You are obviously free to follow the advice if you wish because, hey its your computer and if things go wrong, its you who has to fix it.

Anyway your problem is not that complicated. All you need to do is ALT-F2 -> enter the command "kdesu konqueror" (without quotes) in the box that will pop up. Enter roots password when prompted and Konqueror the KDE file manager will be started as root. After that press F9 and you can navigate to your home directory and remove the files you wanted to delete.

The above method uses all GUI apps, but it would have been quicker to do it using the command line. If you want to be a successful Linux user, then you have to have a little bit of knowledge about the command line. You can learn the basics at linuxcommand.org.