Ubuntu won't let me log on as root
in [UK Linux]
|
From: Dave W on 21 Jun 2010 10:20 I am the original poster on this thread, and have only just come back to read what seems to be a raw nerve opened up. To clarify my position, I have created a Ubunto CD from a DVD using my main PC. I have installed Ubunto from the CD onto a partition in my laptop, which does not have a DVD drive. The programmes I wish to install are all on DVD's but I can put them on CD or memory stick for the laptop. I can also download programs onto my stick at a public library terminal. I would like to try other distributions but am limited to CD (or iso image to make one) and must have the Intel 830 screen driver included. I have created a user account as well as the root (but used the same password for both - I hope this is not the problem). When I log on as user and go to install something via the desktop, I'm told I don't have the authority, and that sudo is not allowed. When I installed from the CD, there was an option to ignore UUID bits on the partition. I do not understand this so did not tick this option. Is this User ID? If I re-installed with this option might this help? Dave W
From: chris on 21 Jun 2010 11:08 On 20/06/10 12:24, Martin Gregorie wrote: > While I'm on the subject, does anybody know if its possible to revert to > the traditional text box entry for the user name rather than using the > dumb pick-list? Apart from anything else, the pick list reduces security > by telling a miscreant what the user names are: IOW instead of having to > guess both username and login, the cracker only needs to guess the > password. I don't see how that would help. Once a cracker is sat in front of your machine, the lack of a pick-list is not going to hinder them one bit. Once they have physical access to your machine there's not much you can do to stop them doing what they want.
From: chris on 21 Jun 2010 11:16 On 21/06/10 15:20, Dave W wrote: > I am the original poster on this thread, and have only just come back > to read what seems to be a raw nerve opened up. Don't worry about it. Ubuntu has that affect on some people ;) > To clarify my position, I have created a Ubunto CD from a DVD using my > main PC. I have installed Ubunto from the CD onto a partition in my > laptop, which does not have a DVD drive. The programmes I wish to > install are all on DVD's but I can put them on CD or memory stick for > the laptop. I can also download programs onto my stick at a public > library terminal. That may not be very easy as most linux programs are not single stand-alone applications. They can have many dependencies that need installing at the same time. This is why linux distributions have package managers which deal with this for you as it;s often difficult to work out exactly which packages you need prior to installation. There are ways to do this off-line, but you'd need to ask an Ubuntu specialist. > I would like to try other distributions but am limited to CD (or iso > image to make one) and must have the Intel 830 screen driver included. > > I have created a user account as well as the root (but used the same > password for both - I hope this is not the problem). It's not a problem as long as it's a strong password, but it is pointless and you may as well have stuck with sudo. sudo only requires your user password in order to work. > When I log on as > user and go to install something via the desktop, I'm told I don't > have the authority, and that sudo is not allowed. This may be because you don't have internet access. > When I installed from the CD, there was an option to ignore UUID bits > on the partition. I do not understand this so did not tick this > option. Is this User ID? If I re-installed with this option might this > help? I doubt that is relevant to this problem.
From: Martin Gregorie on 21 Jun 2010 14:32 On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:08:14 +0100, chris wrote: > I don't see how that would help. Once a cracker is sat in front of your > machine, the lack of a pick-list is not going to hinder them one bit. > Guessing two items is always harder than one, the more so if the user name isn't something obvious like the owner's first name and the password has at least alphanumerics and camel case with the latter not corresponding to normal usage. > Once they have physical access to your machine there's not much you can > do to stop them doing what they want. > ....only if they're knowledgeable enough to recognise what the OS is and how to force a single-user boot *and* there are no encrypted partitions [1] *and* you weren't stupid enough to leave the recovery disk in some obvious place. Of course, that assumes they're interested in inspecting your disk: if they just want the hardware its highly likely that your disk will be reformatted without anybody even trying to look at its contents. [1] I have a small encrypted partition on one of my systems: the normal boot process hangs on the partition key prompt until it gets a valid key. I assume that even the single-user boot process will want to mount all partitions, which means getting a valid key for the encrypted one, before the first shell prompt but admit I haven't tried that yet. Can anybody confirm whether this key prompt can be bypassed on Fedora for any run level? -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |
From: Martin Gregorie on 21 Jun 2010 14:36
On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 06:30:58 -0700, Ian wrote: > On 20 June, 11:37, grinch <gri...(a)somewhere.com> wrote: > >> I have just installed 10.04 on an intel atom machine as it is the only >> distro that works out of the box( I am a lazy git).I personally don't >> like ubuntu a for the very reason you state you cant log in as root. > > Unless, as has been pointed out, you take five or ten seconds to set the > root password. > If its anything like Fedora, setting the password will allow su and ssh logins but will still prevent you from logging in via gdm. To get round that you have to finesse the config files in /etc/pam.d - see up thread for details. -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org | |