I'm a happy newbie user of openSuSE 10. At the moment, I'm presently logging on as root whenever I install software (probably not necessary with YaST, but oh well).

Is this a recommended practice, or should I be installing software as my user account? My personal account doesn't have access to many system folders so I assume this is the way to go.

Anything that is packaged can go through YaST -- Is it still worthwhile to log in as root? Is there any risk to doing so?

Thanks much for the help!

I wouldnt recommend logging in as root regularly. Heres what to do; when you are in a command prompt, you can type 'sudo' (no quotes) before a command to execute as root, or just type 'su' (no quotes) alone at a prompt to get a root console. You can then continue with your business.

sudo will let you do this command:

user@machine$ sudo cp ~/script.sh /usr/bin/
Password: xxxxx
user@machine$

if your user name is in the sudoers file, you will be allowed to execute root commands using sudo without a password (be careful)


su works like this:

user@machine$ su
Password: xxxxxxx
root@machine#

The way sudo works by default is that you need to put your account in the /etc/sudoers file in order to use sudo; and then it asks for your password. This is much more secure than using "su" since you can do anything as root from your account without needing to log in as root; but you don't need to worry about leaving your account logged in since you need to enter your password (which random people don't know) in order to use sudo. Also, you can restrict what commands can be used with sudo, etc.

Doesn't YAST ask for your root password anyway when you start it up when logged in as a user. Either way you should never login as root.

How concerned do I need to be that I've logged in as root? I've only logged in as root to install some software (Firefox then Opera is about it). Given I haven't done much, is it such a risk that a reinstall is warranted??

If something is not in an RPM package, how do I install it as not root? I'm starting to think this is a question more for the newbie section...

it's normal to switch to the root user (via sudo, sux -, kdesu, or when prompted by yast) to install software. the normal user doesn't have (and shouldn't have) the permissions to write to system directories.

No. Logging in as root is only dangerous because you can easily make a mistake and break the whole system. Its also generally not a good idea to run desktop applications (eg. web browsers) as root for security reasons, but unless you have seen some indication that your comp. has been compromised you'd have to be extremely, extremely paranoid to want to re-install just because you once ran firefox as root

Assuming you're talking about .tar.gz source packages? The only bit that you need to run as root is the make install, eg: For binary installers (eg. the one for Firefox that you download from mozilla.org) you only need to run it as root if you want to install it to be accessible to all users, not just yourself. In this case To use sudo you need to setup your user in it. To do this edit the /etc/sudoers file with a text editor or using the visudo command, running as root, and add the following under "# User privilege specification":

Aha, that clears up ALOT regarding software installations. I wasn't sure how to install the tarballs and such myself. Thank you!