I need to remotely reboot my computer, operating on Linux RedHat 7.3. My remote access is done through TELNET on a Windows XP machine.

First, I can not log on remotely though via TELNET as root. However, I can log on to the computer as any other user and activate Super User. However, only root can reboot the computer, so SU is pointless.

Someone informed me that I might be able to perform what I need, by modifing a init or init.d file in Redhat. He informed me of which, he was not sure if Redhat had these files, because he is used to running ScoUNIX.

Simply put, I need to find a way to remotely reboot my computer through TELNET. Any help would be "greatly" apriecated. Thanks in advance.

First of all, get rid of telnet and use ssh, its more secure. Anything thru telnet is being broadcasted unencrypted and if that's the case, you might as well just post your IP, username and passwords publicly for all to see.

Second, for the reasons stated above, I highly advise you not to login directly thru telnet as root, as anyone could sniff or obtain your password with ease. It'd be like taking a lollipop from 1 year old. And on a side note, yes, you can't login as root directly cause of these reasons as its totally insecure.

And if you really insist on using telnet still, then what's the problem su'ing to root to reboot? If you need the full path of root do a:

su - root

And then login, as that will give you root's complete path as well, so you wouldn't have to type the full path of any given command.

And also another even more safe way to make your machine more secure, would be to setup sudo, so your user would have access to shutdown or reboot the machine, without ever using root's password.

Regards.

Um, unless I am seriously mistaken, su IS root. I know I can reboot this way without a problem.


So are you doing the following:

log in as a normal user
su -
enter root's password
reboot

And if it isn't rebooting, what is it doing? Error messages? By the way, TELNET won't allow root login by default, although you could probably change the config file to allow it. It's a bad idea, but you can do it.

And finally, PLEASE tell me that this computer is on a nice secure, private LAN and your not using TELNET across the internet. TELNET is insanely insecure and if you have even the slightest exposure to the internet you really should be using ssh.

Dang. Beaten to the punch by trickykid. On all counts too!

Theoretically speaking, su should be root. However, su does not have the same full access as root in some conditions.

These conditions are, running startx (some utilities can not be switched between user & su), running TELNET (try doing so and type in shutdown (utility does not exist)), etc. All rights were setup correctly.

Logically speaking, if you run "su", you are running it under a utility, which "will" have limitations. Running su on the front end, while in command line may be the only exception to having limitations.

I do not know if this is because it is scripted so for reasons of security or is a simple limitation of the su utility. I ensure you though, I can prove you very wrong with su being "COMPLETELY = root".

Trickykid, your information is most valuable. I have to thank you from my up most highest regards. I was not aware of the insecurity of TELNET. In addition, I am thankful about the information regarding sudo. I will look it up.

I still need information about how to reboot remotely. Please take the time to test the results. I have had Linux extremest in my school telling me the same thing about su and were completely baffled when I tested there theories in front of them and it did not work. I showed them my hypothesis and put it to test and the result has been absorbed into there logical thinking very quickly.

Fantastic news!!! I was able to remotely reboot my computer through TELNET!

I did not know there was a reboot utility, I always used shutdown. Hangdog42, your information was exactly what I needed. I want to thank you for all your help and the help of everyone else.

Scratch this question, it was dumb.