User powers!?
 

I have just completed the setup and install of debian woody 3.0 and have successfully configured my network card etc. I created an additional user account like im supposed to other than root.

Whats the debian command for giving my new user account root powers?

Thanks

scx

short answer...
 

you dont

If you need to do something as root you do it from terminal by typing "su" and put in your root pw. Dont think Windows.

You don't give a user account root powers. If you need root powers,
you su (switch user) to root. At the command line type "su" without
the quotes and enter, then give your root password. When you've
finished your work as root, type "exit" to return to normal user.

That's the first line of security in Linux...log in as root only to do setup
and configuration that absolutely requires administrator privileges, such
as adding users, installing software packages, and performing network
and other system configuration. Once you are finished, immediately leave
the special account and resume your work as a non-privileged user.

Ok I definately need guidence then! before reading your posts which I'm very grateful for I used the command adduser myusername root so now myusername is a member of the root group and i have root powers...which actually isnt really what i want!!! Is there a way to undo this?

I don't know where to look it up right now but I think root can delete that user,
or change the group. Issue "man chgrp" and see if that's what you need.

And to give yourself a good introduction to Linux, read http://tille.soti.org/training/tldp/index.html

Ok so if I delete my user then create a new user how can i give it enough power to modify files other than its home. I could use su but i cant use su from puTTY. basically I have my webserver setup and im trying to aministrate it remotely useing puTTY from my windows machine. but when I log in as myusername I cant do anything like change files etc and when i try to log in as su I get an access denied message. I need to access my /var/www/ folder from my windows machine from putty and also I need to be able to ftp into my server. If anyone knows where tfm is for these things that would be a great help! Thanks! SCX

Now you've posted some more specific information so that someone
"in the know" can answer your question. You never before mentioned
that you were tying to admin a webserver from a Windoze box.

Sorry but I've never done this. I'd give you some suggestions but none
that would be helpful. This post is in the Debian forum, but it isn't just a
Debian specific situation. It's more of a Networking question. I don't
think anyone would object if you started a completely new thread, with
a subject more in line with your puTTY question, and this new information
in the Networking forum.

Have you searched LQ www.google.com/linux for puTTY? Have you searched
the Networking forum in particular? I just searched Google with the word
puTTY and came up with some good looking stuff.

Sorry I can't be of more help. I'm building a small server next week, but will
be using SSH from Slackware to do what you're doing from Windoze.