Root In Kubuntu
 

Is it possible to enable the root account? I enabled it in the account manager but when I try to login with it, it says "Root logins aren't allowed"

Is there away to change that?

Thanks in advance :)

Do you mean logging into a GUI session as root? If so you need to enable this using the login manager config section in kcontrol. I would not recommend this though, because its disabled as a safety precaution and anything you need to do as root can be done whilst logged into your normal account using sudo or su.

Ubunto is among the few recent distros disallowing logging as root and I guess Kubunto would do the same.

It is a pain in the arxe but as Ubunto provides "root terminal" that should be useful for most of the applications. Also I think one can call up some GUI programs like the kwrite editor from the root terminal too. It isn't as bad as it sounds.

Actually its not a few distros that disallow you to login as root, its most of them especially, if you use KDM or GDM to login. This is obviously for security reasons. I find that once you get used to the idea of not routinely logging in as root, you can learn to do a lot of sysadmin stuff in the command line and use text editors such as vim, emacs and pico.

Actually I could only find the new Knoppix 4, Suse 10, Ubunto and may be one or two others doing it.

Fedora, Mandriva, Slackware and possibly 75% of the distros I have installed don't bother with preventing a user to log in as root. I think Suse and Mandriva displaying a red screen (in case of Suse full of ignited bombs as icons) is enough to highlight the danger.

I would agree that only way to understand Linux is to use its rich set of shell commands but line editors are not as productive as Graphic editors. Mounting partitions, altering the boot loader parameters etc can be easier if an user can just get on with it.

If the Linux has a booting problem it is the root user's role to fix and rescue it.

Who says anything about using line editors, there are fully featured text editors that run in the CLI, for example Vi and emacs. I don't see why a graphical text editors should be more productive than CLI text editors, for starters if I use a CLI text editor then I don't have to move the mouse to the window of the graphical text editor I just opened to grab focus

If you login as root in Mandriva you will notice that the desktop is crippled and there are warning signs all over. You also get a nice little warning that you should not be logging in as root. In Fedora Core some aspects of the gui are crippled as well e.g. screensavers (not sure if you use gnome).

As for editors, I find Emacs and VI quite productive (in my case I prefer Emacs but can use both). They can also be used in graphic mode so once you get used to them in graphic mode, its easy to use them in the command line.

I am actually quite comfortable with vi but its implementation is not consistently between distros in that there are minor variations and incompleteness. You do develop skill if you are forced to practise it.

Highlight a text doing a crtl+c to copy and a crtl+v to paste is universal across MS Windows and Linux X Windows but that is sadly missed in the Linux shell.

Despite all the good things about using a Linux shell there is no substitute in examining different mounted partitions from different distros to diagnose an error in say in /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /boot/grub/menu.lst by comparing it with other distros available in different windows under GUI.

Say if I amend one Grub to multi-boot 10 systems and want parts of its menu.lst repeated in another 5 Grub it would be a very long process using vi but takes no time at all in using kwrite.

I still think it is better to leave the user to decide on the risk of damaging his/her own work, in a computer he/she installed the distro.

It makes a mockery of security if Ubunto disallows a user to temper with the system files by preventing he/she from logging in as root while the same user can load a Live CD, say Slax or Mepis, and does whatever he/she can with the same Ubunto system.

On the same subject, have you guy any comment on WinXP/Win2k security? By booting to a Linux and log in as root all the systems files within a WinXP/Win2k partition, including the hidden ones, are fully accessible by the Linux user. This is obviously a big hole here as far as security is concerned, as the root Linux user inherits Windows admin rights, even with a Live CD!

Ubuntu not Ubunto ;). A good sysadim would prevent booting from cd, floppy or usb if security is a concern and maybe use a bios security password as well.

reddazz,

Good tips.