Here is what happened just now:

I created using kuser manager a user.Nothing fancy just create and save .After a succesful 'su' I tried issuing "dir' command nbut got a "bash:dir command not found". Then I tried kedit and again a 'command not found' message.
Isuing this commands as normal user has no such errors.Dir and kedit worked.

This is strange as this did not happen in Mandrake.

Su is supposed to be 'super user' why this errors?

Try using "su -" for it to setup the full environment as root.

Of course su - will work. What I wanted was to use 'su' so that I will still be in the directory of the normal user. 'su -' brings me to root home.

Besides when I 'su -' kedit is not working error is 'cannot connect to x server'.

Mandy simlinks dir to ls, slack by default doesn't... so try ls.

'ls' works so does 'insmod' and many others. How can I make kedit work after 'su'?

thanks

I'm recalling from some deep area in my brain right now, so this might not be accurate...

I believe when you do a plain ol su it's a temporary session. You can still use X apps for example... kedit somefile and kedit will run with root access level.

However, if you use su -, the session is like you've actually exit your current shell, and then log in as root. Therefore, theoretically, root hasn't got an X session running, and this causes kedit not to run (because it is an X app).

Gurus... if any of the above is wrong, please correct me.

Slack does not symlink dir to ls, but has a quite easy way of doing so. dircolors does alias dir to ls, as well as providing nice colorful output to ls. All you have to do is add:

eval `dircolors`

to your ~/.bashrc and you are set...

About the su - thing, I believe Azmeen to be quite right about it, i can not fire an ethereal from a "su -" shell (can not open display) but it is fine from a su shell.

Can not see why you need the - argument, can you not simulate any environment changes - if you need them? Just write a script to export any necessary variables..

Azmeen's reply is a COMPLETE OPPOSITE to what is happening here. If I use su only I cannot 'dir' or 'kedit'-both having 'command not found 'errors.

thanks everybody for replying. I think I can live with 'ls' and su- for the moment.