which group?

LinuxPadawan · 04-07-2005, 05:27 PM

I am trying to increase permissions for my standard user account and I am having a hard time figuring out what is what from the list (like 3 letter descriptions) where you add a user to a group. If you would, please tell me which group to add the user to so there is access to files copyed to the hard drive, because I do not automatically have permission to anything I copy from CD's, its just read and no wright. The group that can install programs. And delete files.

trickykid · 04-08-2005, 09:48 AM

This is where administering comes into play. You can create your own groups and users to have ownership and access to different parts of your filesystem by assigning appropiately.

vharishankar · 04-08-2005, 09:55 AM

If you are using KDE, you can user the User Manager (KUser) which can be found under "KDE Start Menu" --> "System". Very useful graphical tool to manage your users.

trickykid · 04-08-2005, 09:58 AM

After rereading your post, if you want your user account to have more permissions without being root (don't add your user to the root group for many security reasons), install and or setup sudo access is the best route to go.

vharishankar · 04-08-2005, 10:09 AM

Another option would be to use the su whenever you wish to perform administrative tasks as a user, without having to log out and log in again as root.

I've never used sudo so I cannot comment on that.

As trickykid says, it might be quite dangerous to assign the "root" group to normal users.

Any of the above strategies will work for you. Choose whichever feels more comfortable for you.

trickykid · 04-08-2005, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Harishankar
Another option would be to use the su whenever you wish to perform administrative tasks as a user, without having to log out and log in again as root.

I've never used sudo so I cannot comment on that.

As trickykid says, it might be quite dangerous to assign the "root" group to normal users.

Any of the above strategies will work for you. Choose whichever feels more comfortable for you.

The problem with just using su to root is that your passing that actual users password to login as them.. using sudo, you can bypass such things as it authenticates your own users password without ever using root's password.

Majority of the time, I install my system, login as root once to setup sudo and then forget root's password altogether as its never used or needed with proper setup with sudo..

vharishankar · 04-08-2005, 11:04 AM

Quote:

The problem with just using su to root is that your passing that actual users password to login as them.. using sudo, you can bypass such things as it authenticates your own users password without ever using root's password.

Ah I see. Thanks. Maybe I should give sudo a try. Is there any graphical tool to setup and configure sudo?

trickykid · 04-08-2005, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Harishankar
Ah I see. Thanks. Maybe I should give sudo a try. Is there any graphical tool to setup and configure sudo?

Not that I know of but the configuration of the sudoers file is pretty straight forward.

The man page here is pretty much a big example of a sudoers file:

http://www.linuxmanpages.com/man5/sudoers.5.php

vharishankar · 04-08-2005, 09:33 PM

Thanks for the link trickykid.

LinuxPadawan · 04-09-2005, 12:25 PM

but I do not no one from the other, in User Manager the groups you add the user to do not make sense. I know I could give my user root access by putting my user in that group. but I do not know what catagory to put the user in so that I can have access to the CD drive (only root can burn CDs) and so I have permissions to install programs. which are they?

this sudo thing or whatever it is will be a bit confusing to set up right now for myself sense I am a newbie.

trickykid · 04-09-2005, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LinuxPadawan
but I do not no one from the other, in User Manager the groups you add the user to do not make sense. I know I could give my user root access by putting my user in that group. but I do not know what catagory to put the user in so that I can have access to the CD drive (only root can burn CDs) and so I have permissions to install programs. which are they?

this sudo thing or whatever it is will be a bit confusing to set up right now for myself sense I am a newbie.

You need to change ownerships and or add more groups. Don't add yourself to existing groups and don't add your user in the root group. If you want access to your cdrom to mount and such, its as simple as adding your user to perhaps the group "users" and editing your fstab file to allow the mounting of the cdrom drive.. etc.

LinuxPadawan · 04-09-2005, 04:16 PM

where can I find my fstab file? And why shouldn't I add myself to existing groups?

trickykid · 04-09-2005, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LinuxPadawan
where can I find my fstab file? And why shouldn't I add myself to existing groups?

It depends on the group.. most of the standard user and group accounts are for the services that run on your machine... your fstab file is found in /etc where most configurations files are found. Perhaps you should start off reading a bit more about Unix and Linux operating systems before diving into worrying about what groups and users permissions should be, etc.