Nevermind, move along, nothing to see here.

Hi iamtim,

Here is the message that has just been posted:
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So where does 'su -c' fit into all this? I've seen that used a lot and been wondering about the merits of that vs. sudo.
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I could put in here about the merits of using man

e.g. man sudo

the alternative of this is the *nix standard R.T.F.M.

or be really nice to a newby and actually help a bit

*quote from man su

The options which apply to the su command are:

-c, --command COMMAND
Specify a command that will be invoked by the shell using its -c.

if you look back to my last post you'll see how I use sudo
and the advantage I find is having the configuration of /etc/sudoers
mine is dead simple but you can setup quite a complex permission structure
for all sorts of things

man sudo has examples

For a newby from windows, etc the security advantage of *nix is permissions
which operate consistently throughout the *nix system
permission to browse a directory, read a file, write a file, execute a file, etc.



for any newby (with too much time on their hands) install doc-linux-html
grab a slab of beers, lock yourself away and read the HOWTOs and FAQs
and the first thing to look at when in doubt is man (whatever-instruction)

Please note the edit on my post.

I tried init 1 and telinit 1 twenty times, and it wouldn't work and locked up on top of that every single time, and I read about it and saw that there might be a way to do it but you have to change your configuration files around manually.
What I mean is, by default not having a root account and not being able to switch to single user mode are problems, in my opinion. It's just strange to have to go through any effort to do such logical and simple things.

It would start to switch, then freeze at a point, and I couldn't switch from the console I was using and nothing else would work, and I'd have to reboot.

I was using Kubuntu. I checked my disc for errors, and all of that. I tried it over and over and read about it and I read that it works the way it did for me for other people, because of the way the configuration for it is set up, and that you can make changes to configuration files to get it to work (sort of, or whatever). I don't know, but having to put any thought into it is ridiculous to me.

I don't want to have to edit configuration files or read a tutorial to get it to work the way it should.

Also, the fact that the *buntu distributions are the only distributions in the world that do things the way they do things should say something, considering everyone else knows what they're doing.

1 members found this post helpful.

And what about "sudo passwd"?

I'm sure sudo passwd would work, I used it before when I was using Ubuntu. Maybe it's Kubuntu that's giving me the single user problems. I read on other forums and sites that what happens to me happens to other people, and that it's the way everything's configured. I assumed they meant for *buntu, not Kubuntu.

I do get a message that Firestarter has a problem or whatever, but that happens every time I start up Ubuntu or Debian. It works, but some part of it doesn't, I guess, because I always get a failed message of some kind regarding Firestarter.

Ubuntu "knows what there doing" also, thats why there NUMERO UNO!

1 members found this post helpful.

Note the boldfaced enlarged corrections to your spelling.

Midnight Commander:

sudo mc

Just how does that give you a root shell?

MC has (potentially) lots of stuff built in, such as subshell support - try `sudo mc` or `su -c mc` and you get midnight commander. Then, hit CTRL-o for the root shell.

Pretty handy - MC is super-useful.

What about this:

Press Ctrl+Alt+F1. At the shell you get, type the following:

Now, see what you get!