making shutdown obey all users

ssallen · 06-17-2003, 01:09 AM

Hey, I am using EvilE with the enlightenment desktop. I used redhat linux 8.0 before and it allowed everyone to shutdown the system. For some reason this distro won't allow non-admins to use the shutdown command. Is there a file I can edit to change this behaviour? I am trying to write a basic script to allow regular users to safely shutdown the system when they are finished using it.

Thanks for any help!

system specs:

kernel 2.4.20
EvilE 0.17
Emachine

T1100
cel 1.0 ghz
128 mb sdram
20gb hd

Muddy · 06-17-2003, 01:10 AM

why would you want everyone to be able to shutdown the machine? I think the term security risk should be considered here.

ssallen · 06-17-2003, 01:39 AM

Well, I have two machines hooked up to one power switch. Yes, I know. Anyways, one is a windoze box that is quite fond of crashing. As it has no power switch (strange, huh) they have to switch off the power strip to reboot it. As the linux box is on the same strip they need to be able to shutdown the linux box safely before they cut the power to the windows box. Understanding that I cannot always be there to shutdown the system for them, I would like to write a simple script to shutdown the system easily.

As these are my colleagues in the business I am unconcerned about them stealing anything. Not to mention the fact that they probably couldn't tell you which system, was running what operating system anyways. They word process, they don't care what they do it on.

Thanks again,

Muddy · 06-17-2003, 02:05 AM

well, my understanding of shutdown is you have to be root. I guess the basic fix would be to make them part of root. However I imagine there are many better ways.

Muddy · 06-17-2003, 02:07 AM

I guess if you created a new group, put the people you want in it and change shutdown's group and owner to the new group (add root to it of course) that would do it too.

verbal · 06-17-2003, 06:34 AM

Hey there...

Why not look into setting up SUDO access for all users for the single command? This would be a "bit" more secure and could be configured with a single line of text.

Verbal

ssallen · 06-17-2003, 01:59 PM

Hey verbal,

How would I go about that?

Thanks,

verbal · 06-18-2003, 06:21 AM

hey there...

Not sure what distro you are using but try reading this (applicable to most distro's):

sudo info

read carefully on the info regarding configuration, if your not up on vi, it is a bit of a pain to configure with other editors as vi will validate syntax for you when you try to save; other editors wont and sudo will fail if there is any errors in the config file.

If I am not mistaken, most distros come with sudo pre-installed, you just need to edit the 'sudoers' file.

hope that helped,

Verbal