How do I set up an account with root permissions on mandrake 10? I can't figure out how to log on as root and being able to use the gui...

/n00b

You shouldn't have a user account with root privileges. That's why the root account is not just an elevated user but a special account.

Why do you want root access for a regular user? If you need to admin anything, just use the su command to become root until you're done doing whatever superuser stuff it is you're doing.

If you need to extend access for a user to something you can create a new group using the groupadd command, add the user to this group and change the ownership and permissions on whatever it is you want to give access to to full access for group members.


Håkan

Jag är än så länge inte en särskilt van användare av konsolen, så jag vill kunna göra en del av den vanliga filhanteringen med nautilus, men det går inte om användaren man är inloggad som inte har root-previlegier.
Är jag helt ute och cyklar?

I tried group add but only got the message that group root exists.

The reason some of us want root access in Mandrake but not all the time is for doing the small things. e.g. adding a usb key so that we can transfer files. As a normal user I can add a folder to the mount directory. However I cannot edit permissions on any of my bin/bash files or edit the fstab file. The fstab file needs to be altered to be able to read my usb key.

There are a host of other reasons but being a root in the graphical format is a necessity not a whim.

Now can someone please give me a step by step on how to do it?

Arny!

in a terminal do
su
when your done do
exit

that's not what I meant. I want to create a user account with root permissions to use in the gui, not just in the shell...

You don't want to have root priviliges all the time, specially
NOT in a GUI.


Cheers,
Tink

When administering files I do want to be able to use the gui to do it, and that does not count as all the time.

*sigh*

How about trying
su -c 'export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0; nauseaus&'
then? If need be make an alias of it :P


Cheers,
TInk

Most system configuration files are only writable by root period. root is the only owner of the file and the group (usually root) for those files does not have write permission.

There's no way to do what you want (on some programs) without changing permissions and group membership all over the system. This will probably hose it up completely, ruin security, and some programs won't work unless permissions are root user write only. So what you're asking is not and should not be a possibility.

You could do it the simple way and su in a terminal and type in the name of the gui program. If you want several users to be able to without giving them the root password then set up sudo.
man sudo

No, I have used fedora core, debian and other versions of linux. On those you can log in as root + password or user account and password on the GUI. Most of the time one will log in as a user so they do not accidentially delete crucial files, etc.

Some of the time we want to log in as a root to be able to modify administration files without changing the user privillages. If this doesn't work I will just uninstall mandrake and give up on it because this is crucial to doing things.

arny!

You've been instructed by two people. Either
su or sudo

http://www.starnetok.net/~jallen/tutorials/su-sudo.html

su lets a user switch to the root account. sudo gives root privledges to users for either all commands or just a few commands. It's according to how you set it up.

A user account cannot be created with root permissions. That's not how linux works.

Sorry, but that's blatantly wrong. It's no problem
to create a user with a different name from root but
the UID 0, which in fact makes him root as well.

It's not impossible, it's just utterly stupid and
anything but recommended practice.



Cheers,
Tink

Thx ppl I'll go with the su method

Well by Jove, you're right. I created an account with UID 0 just a different username, su'd to it and was root.

I created an account with the username notroot
james: $ su notroot
root: #

I agree that would be stupid and would also create just another security problem.