I'd like to be able to use the init command without logging in as root. I get the following message at the moment:

[reetep@pc reetep]$ /sbin/init 5
init: must be superuser.

I spent this afternoon learning about file permissions in order to be able to change this. I have now done so:

[reetep@pc reetep]$ stat /sbin/init
...blah blah blah
Access (0777/-rwxrwxrwx)
...blah blah blah

but I still get the same error message. Can anyone suggest a way of getting it to work? Many thanks, reetep.

(I'm using RH9).

... you need be by superuser, i.e. root. su to root and try again.

Thanks for your reply Chris. I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying there's no way of doing it without logging in as root? If there's a way of doing it without logging in as root, I'd love to know.

Thanks, reetep.

'su to root'; ie run this command: 'su -', then enter the root password when prompted.

Sudo might help, it lets other users use certain commands specified in the 'sudoers' file.

Thanks for your suggestions. Using sudo was a particularly good idea. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have worked.

I've had to read up about it, cos I hadn't heard of it before; but I'm 99% certain that I know how to use the command now, that what I've done is correct and that it should work. My sudoers file now looks like this:

#User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
reetep pc=(root) /sbin/init

typing sudo -l as reetep gives:

User reetep may run the following commands on this host:
(root) /sbin/init

yet when I type "/sbin/init 5" I still get the same error message:
init: must be superuser.

The same applies even when I modify sudoers as follows:

#User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
reetep ALL=(ALL) ALL

ie I still get the same error message "must be superuser."

I'm very grateful for the help you've given. Unless any other ideas spring immediately to mind, then don't worry about it and many thanks. I'm just writing this because I thought you might be interested to hear whether it worked.

On the other hand if ideas do spring to mind then please help. I'd be very grateful! I know I can just switch to root when I need to use the command, but I do it quite a lot (the startkde command doesn't work you see, but init 5 will load the kde desktop), and I don't feel comfortable working as root all the time (as I've heard that you can really trash your system).

Of course, if no-one has any ideas, then I can try my luck with a thread on fixing the real problem here -that is the startkde command.

Thanks a lot, reetep.

PS I know that I can change the inittab to load level 5 as default, but I like to load to 3 so that I can choose between windowmaker and the kde/gnome desktop. So that's not a quick fix either really. Thanks, reetep.

You can't use init without being root (init checks that the EUID is 0). You need to set the setuid bit on /sbin/init (bad idea) or use sudo.

BTW, you need to type 'sudo /sbin/init 5', not just '/sbin/init 5'. It's not because you're in sudoers that it will suddenly magically work - you need to run your stuff through the sudo command.

Thanks robartes, you've done it for me. I WAS actually running /sbin/init through the sudo command, except I was typing sudo | /sbin.init 5, as suggested by the manual. (Or at least that's what I think the manual says you should do. Maybe I'm not interpreting the syntax statement properly).

But anyway sudo /sbin/init 5 does it, (I same thing without the pipe), so thanks a lot everyone. You guys are great!