Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I am confused about built in accounts, is administrator and guest accounts built in or is just the root built in. I'm talking about out of the box installations.
At installation there is the root account. Most installers also create a "normal user" account at the same time.
The priviledges automatically given to that "normal" account vary from distro to distro, but can always be changed by the root user, or the normal user if they have suitable sudo priviledges.
A "guest account" might be one you create with very limited priviledges (can't use the colour printer, or access files in a "shared" directory, for example), for an untrusted guest to use.
An "administrator account" usually refers to a normal account which can access (all or some) system commands with sudo
After your fresh installation you will have to make/create other user accounts.
Guest accounts are not built in.
Your Administrative account with elevated privileges (root) is what you set during your install.
As far as out of the box is concerned--
The regular user account is separate from root.(provided you created a user during the install)
Usually there are a bunch of system accounts that are created for various daemons and services; looking in /etc/passwd will give a list. However, these accounts aren't meant for actual human users to log into. They usually don't even have a valid shell. However, they do exist.
Usually there are a bunch of system accounts that are created for various daemons and services; looking in /etc/passwd will give a list. However, these accounts aren't meant for actual human users to log into. They usually don't even have a valid shell. However, they do exist.
Some distros, such as Ubuntu and its derivatives, ask you to create only a user account at time of installation and hide the root account (it's fairly simple to re-enable root if you wish to do so). For administrative tasks, they enable the first user (assumed to be the installing user) to use the sudo command to execute administrative tasks.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.