Hi, Everyone!

I just installed Ubuntu last night on a partition, and so far....I LOVE it!

There is one thing that may be a deal-breaker for me though: It seems that I am always prompted for a password!!!! When I first start my machine up...PASSWORD! O-K, once a day wouldn't be so bad...but if I let my display turn off while I'm away from the 'puter...I come back, and...PASSWORD?! Every time I try to do anything on the system....PASSWORD?!

I did a few things that I thought might solve the problem- I checked some boxes here and there, like "automatically log on" and made myself an administrator....but no matter what I do, I'm plagued by the password prompt 600 times a day and i can't take it!!!

Is there any way to stop this nonsense? This is WORSE than Windows UAC crapola!! (at least with that, you just have to click a button)- As much as I am loving Ubuntu....if there is no way to disable this password nonsense, I'm afraid I'll be heading back to Vista.

Please help!!!

I'm the only person who uses my computer (Although I think my dogs were playing on it while i was out fixing the tractor today...)- so I just need to know if there's a way to get rid of all this password-protected stuff???!!!!

Thanks in advance for any help!! (I'm actually back on Vista right now...I got so annoyed being prompted for a password every 5 seconds)

Get a good book on computer security?

If you insist on disabling the security, IIRC in System->Preferences or Administration, there was some kind of policy settings. Perhaps you could change those.

to kill the screensaver password go to display settings, uncheck the box for password.
(This level of security is Really only useful for public and office systems.)

You should also be able to change the screen saver, (time, etc.) here as well.

Now, can you post the exact error, or login info?
It could be password ageing 'chage --help'

Some other commands to look up in a shell, chmod chgrp chown.

Or on the web, search "man chown"

You shouldn't need a password for most tasks and programs, if so, post that message too, please.

Cheers Glenn

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Thanks Glenn and Bratmon And the other guy who posted, but whose post was apparently removed.(I so hate to see censorship- C'mon, we're not little schoolgirls who will cry our eyes out if we see something remotely critical!)

I appreciate the quick response!

Sorry for not looking up the answer first- but since I've only been in the LINUX world for 24 hours, I've been doing a lot of searching already (which paid off, as my Ubuntu experience has been going very smoothly)- I just really wanted a quick, direct answer- and I shall log back onto Ubuntu momentarily and try Glenn's advice.

Now, if I may ask one more thing: What is "shell"? (When I say I'm a noob, I mean it!)

Oh, and Glenn- I was not getting any error messages- it just seems that Ubuntu is very paranoid. I go to change a setting or something, and the login box just routinely pops up. (This I can probably live with, if I can get rid of the screensaver and start-up login prompts! I already chec ked the 'log in automtically" box, so I'm assuming that that will take effect in my next session)

Thanks again- this timely info is much appreciated.

2 members found this post helpful.

System > Administration > Users and Groups.

Select your user. Next to password "asked at login" select change. Check the box for don't ask for password on login > OK.

This will take care of the start up login, but as for the rest I'm not real sure. Probably have to turn the gnome keyring off if you can.

Shell = Terminal (applications > accessories > terminal)

Good luck!

I honestly think Ubuntu's password prompts are better than Windows UAC for exactly the same reason.

I have no idea what you must be doing to get the password prompt every 5 mins, but it should not be that often. Be sure to try GlennsPref's advice and post back here with the info he asked for. Chances are very good that you are doing something wrong, or at least making it harder than it needs to be.

Anyway, glad to hear you like Ubuntu. Hope you'll come to appreciate it better and stay with it.

a shell is like a command prompt (run > cmd)in vista.

That's OK, I didn't see one either.

And to disable the gksu and PolicyKit prompts (which in my opinion are both on par with WinBloze $hista User Account Control) [type this in a terminal {Applications > Acessories > Terminal}]:

Then enter your new root password and you'll be able to log in as root and not deal with those annoying prompts.

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O-K, muh'boys, I think I've gotten this under control here! I've been back on Ubuntu for about 2 hours now, and haven't been prompted for any passwords yet!

I think Ubuntu and I will get along just fine. (Oh, the joys of being Windows-free!)

Just for good measure, I'd like to try Kenny's suggestion, too (Shell= terminal. Noted!)

What is a "root password" though? -And if I do that, will I have to enter that password each time I start Ubuntu? (I got that to stop...hate to make it start again.....)

I just set up my Evolution email- hopefully tomorrow will be my first Windows-free day since I've started 'putering!

The root password is the password you enter when you want the power to destroy your Ubuntu system. Ubuntu is shipped with sudo which gives you the power of root for a single action only.

Just opened the terminal - it says "name@name:~$" Do I just type "sudo passwd" after the $ and hit enter? (I won't touch it till one of youse[sic] tells me)- once I do it once, I'll know what I'm doing....

I've never managed to break Windows over the last 11 years....so hopefully, I'll be as lucky with Ubuntu..... (That's where you guys come in!)

I will not tell you how to circumvent Ubuntu's built in protection. If you are convinced that you are too elite to be protected, then read here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

root in Linux is what administrator is in Windows.

In Ubuntu, root account exists but you can not login as root (as there is no valid password for that user). Just use sudo for the administrative tasks on the command line, it will prompt you for a password once in a while (I think the password is valid for 5 minutes by default). Same in the GUI environment.

PS
You have never tried hard enough to break Windows

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All of which is explained on the page I linked to above.

No. On Ubuntu sudo is configured to store your passwrod for 15 minutes. This is also explained on the page I linked to above.

No. To run GUI programs as root on Ubuntu you should use gksudo. This is also explained on the page I linked to above.

Agreed. Windows is quite fragile compared to Linux.