FC5 seems to be overabundant with security. I have to continually su to become root to do what I want to do, I'd say i have to type my password in 20 times an hour. It's ridiculous. I'm sure I'm doing something the hard way here.

1. How do I give certain executables rwx power for all users? (When I set up Azureus I kept getting an error for the status, later I found out it was because it didn't have the power to create the new file because I had it in a different directory.) What are the best ways to deal with this sort of thing?

2. How can I set up a sudoer that when the sudo command is used it gives absolutely all power?

3. Why does it seem like every application that runs in X server is filled with bugs? Like when I drag open a file menu it gets stuck there, or rhythmbox will lock up, or when I properly close the window by hitting the x it will say it is being closed improperly? I think there is something massively buggy about nautilus. . . Also its so sensitive. I'm the kind of person who runs mutlitple apps with multiple windows and I find the system gets slower, or it will do things like the window will disappear and I have to wait for 25 seconds for everything to kick into gear again. Just buggy things like that. Yet I can play full screen games without a problem... Obviously it's bugs in nautilus and perhaps the X server? What do they mean by Fedora Core 5 is stable? Depending on the definition stable seems like a serious overstatement.

4. I'm not finding information on how to set up a dual display. I have the 6600gt and was wondering how to set it up but not finding anything good. I pretty much need a step by step guide otherwise I'm SOL (Sadly out of luck)

EDIT: 5. There are these yellow little pictures of locks that show up on some of my folders and applications on my desktop and elsewhere. Why do they show up like that? I didn't assign them and they seem to target specific files, ones I've used in the past although I cannot discern the exact pattern. I hate them very much, can someone tell me what it's all about?

1) chmod 777 filename, but generally this is a bad thing. And yes, all linux distros care about security. Your files are your files and someone else's are theirs. chmod'ing it this way may not work because that program might try to call another program that you don't have access to. So you'd have to go find that file and change its rights too. Some programs create a group. If you go into your user manager, you can add yourself to different groups. I don't use Azureus, so I don't know if it has a group or not... You can also add your user to the admin group, which might help with some tasks. The best way is sudo.

2) http://www.wlug.org.nz/SudoHowto or http://www.chinalinuxpub.com/doc/www...ux-hn/sudo.htm Note that really with sudo you shouldn't give yourself ALL = (ALL) ALL access because its a security risk. You should really just give yourself the commands you need. But your system is your responsibility...

3) I would dispute that Fedora core is "stable". Almost every desktop distro is not really stable. You wouldn't want to put it in a production server because the software hasn't been tested well enough because they all want to use the latest software. If you use the latest software, you run a greater risk of finding a bug. If you want really stable, try Slackware or Debian Sarge (stable branch). Now, that's not to say that the desktop distros are really unstable, but you're just bound to run into a few quirks.

4) No idea

Do you are running FC5 with SELinux in enforcing mode ?
Try the permissive mode. It may aleviate some issues you described.
Go to System menu/Administration/Security Level and Firewall. In SELinux tab, change it to permissive.

I think SELinux is too much for a desktop machine/user environment.

The answer to question 5 is that you don't have read permissions for those files. I assume you're looking at them in Konqueror. It shows everything you're not allowed to access with a yellow padlock on it. This includes things like the CD drive, if there is no CD mounted on it.

Well thanks fellas, that clears up most issues. I am running Gnome actually and I have no trouble accessing the files with locks on them so I can't see how it could mean I dont have read access.

All that remains is for someone to tell me how to set up a dual display or point me in the direction of an article on it.. thanks.

By the way I really like linux, its a lot more fun than windows. The only problem I have with it is the instability of the desktop, maybe I'll try Slackware.

Slackware is great, but if you use (and like) Gnome there's a
word of warning. Slack has abandoned Gnome 2 versions ago;
but there are projects that build packages for Gnome for Slack.


Cheers,
Tink

Well, I don't know what the padlocks mean in Gnome as I'm not a Gnome user. What do you mean "instability of the desktop"? I've not had stability issues with X in any version of Linux.

http://www.google.com/linux is the best friend you have in this world, no matter how good your RL friends are!

I suggest in particular these results, which came from searching for "xorg.conf dual head" on google/linux.

http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr...ad&btnG=Search

Security wise, you aren't running as root are you? That is a windows habit that many people have problems breaking away from. You shouldn't do things as root, because beyond the major super security hole that creates on your system, anything created by root is owned by root, even if it is created in your home directory. Since root owns it, most times all you can do is read the file, not write to it or mainipuate it in any way. Make sure you use your non-priveledged user account, and only elevate to root when you have to, and stop being root as soon as you can.

I run azereus as my regular user often, and I've never had a problem with it.

Peace,
JimBass