Hi everybody, i have this wierd question: i can't login to my machine as root... when i installed the this new OS (SuSE 9.1), i configured a root login as well as created a couple of users. now when it loads through LILO, and KDE starts up, the login menu pops up and promts for a username and password. when root is entered, it says that root logins are not allowed. How can i enable them back? it's funny, because when i try to modify some settings to the system using a regular user account, and it tells me that only root can do it, it then prompts for a root password, and when the entry matches, it enables me to change any system settings...

so yeah, please, if anybody have any suggestions, feel free to help out a new geek... :P

this is a safeguard against you stuffing up your system by accident. Linux works on the basis you wont be logged in as root, since its too easy to make a mistake.

Id just leave it as is, and get used to it

i'm new to suse too, and getting annoyed at it's windowness. you probably know by now that you can log in as root on any other distro. there has to be a way to do it with suse, i just don't know what it is yet.

I'm not sure what options you are selecting during install, but the default should be to allow root logins. I'm running SuSE 9 Pro and I can login as root just fine. I would guess it's a security level setting during the install. Might be able to remove it through the YAST security module "security level" setting, but I doubt it.

That being said, there are several ways of denying root logins. Login as a normal user and open up an xterm (console) and use type "su" to become root (you'll be prompted for the root password and don't include the quotes). Take a look at the /etc/securetty file and make sure that root has access to the various ttys. Check /etc/security/access.conf for any lines which explicitly deny access or limit access to only certain users. If neither of those appears to be the cause, you might want to check out the solution discussed here:

http://cert.uni-stuttgart.de/archive.../msg00014.html

May or may not be the problem, but worth checking out. To be honest though, between using su to switch to root and YASTs "Administrator Mode" you really don't need to login directly as root on SuSE. Though I'm sure it's irritating anyway.

yep, thanx alot guys, indeed, it is some sort of safeguard... i don't really need to login as root every time... i just thought it happened only to me... so once again, thanx.

oh, and by the way, i've always used ssh for remote administration of my server... how is telnetting different from ssh?

telnet transmits data in plain-text, so everything you type (including login info and passwords) is easily readable by someone eavesdropping (which happens more than you'd think). SSH encypts the data, so that even if someone does eavesdrop, it would take a significant amount of effort to decypt without a private key.

If you could take a look at those files I listed, I would be interested to know how SuSE is enforcing the no root login policy.

hey caveman, i certanly will let you know, but unfortunately, i'm leaving for the long weekend and will not be able to do it right now, so plz expect for the reply by tuesday. thanx.

Take your time, just a curiosity. Enjoy the long weekend.

Hey zerogrep,

Open a shell on your box, su to ruut, and edit the inittab file so that it doesn't start up in the GUI. After that, you should be able to log in as anything that you want.

Not that you want to be running around as root all of the time.


John

Or, in KDE, go to the KDE Control Center - System Administration - Login Manager. Click the Administrator Mode button, enter your root password, click on the Users tab and then in the Select Users / Hidden users window, uncheck the box next to root. It should then show up in the KDM login box.

hey caveman, i was able to ssh to my linux box at home from my cottege here... so, here's the content in those files you suggested to take a look at:

securetty:

tty1
tty2
tty3
tty4
tty5
tty6
# for devfs:
vc/1
vc/2
vc/3
vc/4
vc/5
vc/6

___________________________________________________________________


securety/access.conf:


##############################################################################
#
# Disallow console logins to all but a few accounts.
#
#-:ALL EXCEPT wheel shutdown sync:LOCAL
#
# Disallow non-local logins to privileged accounts (group wheel).
#
#-:wheel:ALL EXCEPT LOCAL .win.tue.nl
#
# Some accounts are not allowed to login from anywhere:
#
#-:wsbscaro wsbsecr wsbspac wsbsym wscosor wstaiwde:ALL
#
# All other accounts are allowed to login from anywhere.
#

so nothing really was changed here.



as rootboy suggested, the best way to get around is runlevel the bitch to 3 so that anybody can login... lol



anyways, thanx to all that participated...
now i'm trying to set up samba to share files with windows workgroup... anybody with a very short set of instructions? (don't really have time to read thru the book that was found in another post http://us1.samba.org/samba/docs/using_samba/toc.html ... ) so yeah, if someone will tell me the basic steps to make it run, like in a couple of lines of explanation, that would be much appriciated...

p.s. i already have smbd running...

samba.org + oreilly web site
when you read about samba and have more precise questions post it and maybe someone will answer you.

Has anyone faced any problem with the "administrator mode" in KDE control center?
When i try to change some settings in 'YaST2 modules', it asks for the root password, i enter it and it just gives me the #@$@ 'KDE Control Center' screen!! It won't show me the options!! Have you got any idea about that?