gaining permission at root in fedora 16

Nguha · 05-27-2012, 07:25 PM

How do you gain permission at 'root' level in fedora 16

em31amit · 05-27-2012, 07:34 PM

your question quite unclear, what do you mean by 'root' level ? are you here trying to doing su to root ?

or you can configure sudo access too.

Code:

#su - 

#su - root

either you can add a another user which have root access.

pixellany · 05-27-2012, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by em31amit

....you can add a another user which have root access.

That strikes me as the hard way---why not just us "su" to switch to the root account?

To the OP:
If you set up the machine, then you provided a "root" password as part of the process. If someone else set it up, then they can give you the password.

Satyaveer Arya · 05-27-2012, 08:21 PM

Quote:

That strikes me as the hard way---why not just us "su" to switch to the root account?

But if a user login using "su" he/she would not be able to run some of the commands, for an example "ifconfig" and he/she will get the following error -
bash: ifconfig: command not found

su gives the particular user root permission but does not change the PATH variable and current working directory. So, the user will not be able to execute command in /usr/sbin/ directory.

su - changes the root permission, PATH variable and current working directory which allows a non-root user to execute all commands.

John VV · 05-27-2012, 11:41 PM

for most things fedora is going to need the " su - "
if you try to launch say Nautilus with just" su" YOU WILL get an error

pixellany · 05-28-2012, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satyaveer Arya

But if a user login using "su" he/she would not be able to run some of the commands, for an example "ifconfig" and he/she will get the following error -
bash: ifconfig: command not found

su gives the particular user root permission but does not change the PATH variable and current working directory. So, the user will not be able to execute command in /usr/sbin/ directory.

su - changes the root permission, PATH variable and current working directory which allows a non-root user to execute all commands.

I don't think so...

If I am not mistaken, "su" means switch to root---with all privileges. The only difference whne using "su -" is that it puts you into root's home directory.

This illustrates:

Code:

[mherring@herring-lap ~]$ whoami
mherring
[mherring@herring-lap ~]$ su
Password: 
[root@herring-lap mherring]# whoami
root
[root@herring-lap mherring]# su -
[root@herring-lap ~]# whoami
root
[root@herring-lap ~]#

John VV · 05-28-2012, 03:26 PM

Quote:

The only difference whne using "su -" is that it puts you into root's home directory.

not quite

su -
uses the ROOT $PATH

su
uses the users $PATH

now they can be VERY VERY different or not much different depending on the set up
but sbin in in root $PATH and IT IS NOT in the users $PATH

chrism01 · 05-28-2012, 06:52 PM

Actually, there are other env vars that change eg SHLVL, USER, LOGNAME,

'_'
for 'su; _=/etc/bashrc
for su -; _=PATH

and so on...

Basically, I always assume that su gives you root but with non-root (ie orig user) env; 'su -' gives you complete root env.

pixellany · 05-28-2012, 08:19 PM

My mistake---yes--"su -" gives you root's environment.

The key thing is that all forms of su give the same **privileges**