How do i make my self the equivilent of the all mighty root ?

im sick of having to enter passwords all the time and having to run konquor as root

hi,

er, why?

the whole point of having the permissions system is to maintain security and protect the operating system - it's one of the fundamental tenets of Linux / Unix.

You normally only require root access to make changes to the system - eg install new software. once it's all set up, you're good to go and the permissions issue shouldn't get in your way.

i agree it can sometimes be frustrating having to enter passwords, but i feel more secure in the knowledge that i'm using an operating system that isn't constantly attacked by viruses, or where a casual mistake might trash the whole thing....

Never mind

you can use the sudo command.

add youself to the wheel group

#visudo

uncomment the line below "# Same thing without a password"

On Fedora it is line 23.

You will have to

$sudo <root commands>

but you do not have to su all the time.

I see a lot of messages about people want to do "too many" things as root. Must be a sympton of using windows too much and to take for granted the ability to do anything to a filesystem...including deleting things you shouldn't etc. which is what you get in Windows. But to run Konqueror as root....why

CK

I have been experimenting with Linux. Mostly Madrake 10.0 Official and SuSE 9.1 Personal. When I used M$win I had to have a lot of programs to protect and clean up spy-ware, etc. No matter what I did I always seemd to get some kind of virus, fortunately I knew how to be cautious and I had things in place so it never got bad, but it was a pian in the a**.

What I am doing now, and I know there are some security risks that pop up from time to time, is keep linux on with no firewall. I haven't used a virus scan or any spy-ware programs. I am doing this on purpose.

With M$win it took only a matter of hours before your computer was infested with something. I have had linux on for weeks at a time, connected to DSL, without any problems. With M$win it would slow down becuase of infestations(amongst other things,) but with linux, again, no problem. I like the security in linux, even if I do have to log in as root every now and then, But I don't do it unless I have to.

Now when I tell this to M$win users, they seem somewhat surprised, lol. I love it.


Webwolf

Yes - indeed though there is also a good reason why windows is more susceptible to virus attack than linux. If you are intent on causing havoc it's better to target windows as 90+ percent or there abouts of home desktops use it. Why write a virus that only target a small minority of desktops.

As time goes on, and more linux desktops appear in peoples home (hooray ), then maybe us linux users should be more wary.

True, but I still think that it won't even be close to what M$win has and will have in the coming years. From what I understand is that in order for a virus to do real damage it needs to get to the root. And if I am not logged in as root then, from my understanding, it shouldn't be as much of a problem. M$win's registry is wide open, leaving it very vulnerable to viruses and spyware.

Webwolf

Webwolf you are correct. in fact, i was goint to make that comment about a virus only making real damage if it has been run as root. But i removed it before submitting as I am not an expert in these matters

Not to sound condescending but wouldn't it have been more efficient to just answer his question instead of questioning his reasons and methods?

One thing that's been annoying me lately is when people ask a simple, one-answer, question and get a long-winded response. (Usually answering more but in this case answering nothing )

That's true Talan but we're here to exchange ideas as well.


If you serve to answer someone's questions without questions you wont be helping them either. It's quite possible that someone could be using root access unecessarily and without asking them, you won't be able to advise them appropriately.

hi talan,

fair point.

perhaps a direct answer to the original question, and then, possibly, a small caution would have been better - i appreciate what you're saying.

I think that the comment (as at the first reply) was a fair one. Maybe it could have been expressed a little better () but: we at LQ should always try to educate each other as to correct use of the system. Running as root is inherently unsafe and the majority of us never do it and can't understand why anyone would want to.

Think of LQ as a conversation - in a conversation the comment would have gone by without anyone mentioning it.

But, yeah, diplomacy is always a good thing

The reason you get long-winded responses to questions like this is because giving the answer and then an explanation will never work. The person will usually take the answer and compeltely disregard any later cautionary statements. Does anyone want to venture a guess on how many times a command-sequence in a tutorial/how-to are executed verbatim before the user reads "substitute your YYY for ZZZ in the commands above". If what I'm saying didn't have at least an inkling of truth, then the joke-saying "when all else fails, read the directions" would not exist.

Take this fictional exchange:
Question:
How do I drive my car into a tree?

Answer:
You press the accelerator until you're traveling at a good speed, and then turn the steering wheel in the direction of the tree.

I would not suggest doing this as you will likely hurt yourself and your car.

Tomorrow's Newspaper Headline
Driver Hospitalized For Hitting Tree

I'm not suggesting anyone here is that dense. I am simply trying to illustrate that when someone is determined to get an answer for a question, they want the answer and don't care about qualifications. I've done it before, and I'm sure most readers of this reply have done it before. The only thing the person answering the question can do is bury the answer in a set of qualifications. The guy looking for the answer is guaranteed to read until the answer is found. Maybe in searching for the answer, some of the qualifications will sink in and maybe cause them to rethink their position.

After reading the OP's question, one can only come away with the notion that this is an individual who most likely does not understand the whole point of NOT running as root.

If the person had asked for example:

Hi, I am interested in a way to always have root privaleges without haviing to enter my password.
I realize this can be dangerous, but I often need to do ABC or XYZ as root and this would make my life easier.

Then the question would be answered in a manner such as you have suggested.

As such, the OP seems to be a user without Clue.
So some was distributed.

As always, it comes down to asking good questions.