Hi,

I am trying to login as root remotely onto a debian machine running freenx. However, whenever I try this, I receive the following error message:

user root cannot be used as an nx user

I have already tried to edit the following values in the server.cfg file under usr/NX/etc:

EnableFullDesktopSharing = "1"
EnableAdministratorDesktopSharing = "1"

Any ideas? thnx

I'm pretty sure it can't be done - and the error message seems to confirm it. Is there anything you need to do that can't be done with su or sudo (or it's KDE and GNOME equivalents)?

Thnx for the quick reply.

Well, I have a fedora box where I am able to use NX to login as root, so I assumed that it was a configuration setting that was preventing this from working on the debian machine. I am using the same computer to logon to both (win box).

I can do what I need using "su"...it's just a pain to constantly retype the root password to get to what I need, especially at the start of a new session.

I am not quite sure how NX works, but VNC starts a new KDM session when you connect to the server. If that is the case, Debian does not allow root login in X.

Alternatively, the debian version of NX might have been patched in order to disable root access.

Generally it is bad idea to run a GUI as root. You can do everything from with KDE as a root, but it should be avoided to run the GUI itself as root.

If you insist and you know what you are doing, edit /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc (or /etc/somewhere/gdmrc if you use gnome) and allow root access and see if that helps.

jlinkels

What you said about the OS blocking root access makes a lot of sense....this version of debian was an image built to run an infosec IDS framework, so it's logical to assume the creators patched it/made it harder to hack.

How would I login as root after I login as a user using FreeNX? I would kill X Window? ctrl+alt+backspace does not work on the FreeNX client.

thnx

You only can start applications as root by using ALT-F2. Press "Options >>" button.

In a shell you can obviously use 'su'. Once you are root in a console you can NOT start a GUI application from the command line.

You can also use kdesu to start an app with root permissions.

jlinkels

you can also use sux

I am not familiar with FreeNX but I believe with nomachine NX CLient you can set up a login to root but it would be with a gui....would root log in in SSL work for you?