Ok I'm familiar with the su and sudo stuff, the security issues al-la.

I want myself to be a system admin of the box, able to use nautilus to browse anywhere and copy files between user accounts, do admin stuff, from the GUI.

I used to use Ubuntu and could do this easily because the first (my) account setup during install became such a user - a system admin. I could do what I wanted. I also added the line "<myname> ALL=NOPASSWD:ALL" to the /etc/sudoers file and everything was smooth.

In Mandriva, I can't. How do I setup the system so I can do this through the GUI using my account without having to enter passwords and so that I can copy files between user accounts (directories).

I've installed sudo and gksudo. Tried that but it changes my UIDs to root so any maintenance activity is done as root (annoying when files are moved,copied as the users cant read them).

Thanks.

This topic has been explained previously. Search this site for root login or some similar key word.

Was this intented to be helpful??

Perhaps one should clarify: One has naturally searched the forums as one is concious of the post ettiquete and member owness to at least try to discover if a particular topic is/has already been discussed.

One example of "typical" posts is:-
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...root+login+uid

Where members' view is "DONT DO IT". I agree. root user is bad that's why I dont want to do it, I want a "halfway" solution where I can be a sysadmin to work with user files/directories etc but not be root.

In ubuntu my UID was 50 (not 0 and thus not root) yet I could read user's directories and files. if I wanted to do "root" stuff, then I entered a root password when requested. Later however I updated /etc/sudoers!

I am afraid my search skills are not as emminent as others, for I was only able to unearth discussions on "su" "sudo" and alike plus the well oiled debate on root login, security et al. I feel my specific issue with this is unique because the functionailty sought is to enable myself as sys-admin (root) privilage however, all maintenance activity is within my own UID/GID.

As stated this was no problem under ubuntu so one can only image a similar option exists under Mandriva.

How do I do this. If there IS a discussion then how about a link, now *that* would be helpful.

I trust this clarifies the position.

I will appologize if I misunderstood your request. A root log in to a gui has been discussed at length, and that is waht I felt you were asking about. I hold the same objection for the Kubuntu method of permitting users to access admin processes as I do for a root GUI log in. Any user logged in with admin privileges poses a security threat to the system as a whole because any intruder that gains access as that user also gains admin priveleges. Entering a root password when I perform admin procedures not only separates my user account from the root account, but serves to remind me to be extra cautious when using such tools. Since I do not use a sudoer's list here I am unable to be of help.

no problem.

I just require a helpful individual who possess the answer to the question, not a debate

thanks.