Isn't Root Dangerous

[imported_hacker07]

Hey i am not a noob, but I have been asking this question for a long time. I know it is dangerous. but how can you run as root safely?

[theprez98]

Hey i am not a noob, but I have been asking this question for a long time. I know it is dangerous. but how can you run as root safely?

Protect your password.
Don't use root unless you need to.

[imported_Deathray]

It's really not advised.
But just make sure everything is kept up-to-date, and that you don't execute any weird code you simply find on the internet ^^ .
Also, implementation of root was also designed to protect the system from the user himself - so he doesn't go by accidentally destroying the system.
So keep up-to-date, make sure you don't do any typo's that will screw up your system, and don't execute code/software you are unsure with.
Easier+safer to NOT run as root imo.

[imported_hacker07]

Okay now I know that, I am running backtrack 4 beta and what if I want to copy all my theme settings to a normal user. what would I do?

[Re@lity]

This question has come up a few times....

In the normal scheme of things, you'd be wanting to follow the above advice.

However, with BT there is a specific purpose of running it, as opposed to a "normal everyday" OS.
For most tasks within BT, you'd want to be running things as root. Because this is "unsafe" it's best not to treat it as a "normal everyday" system.
If you really want to, you can create a normal priv's user, but there's little point in it for most of the included tools.

For keeping the "theme" across normal users, there should be a thread or two covering this already, somewhere in the forums

I don't know how far Muts intends to go with the Ubuntu style "sudo" - I suppose a sudoers profile could be set up to drop and raise privs as required for most tools, but again, I feel that it would be more of a hindrance than a help, because it would be required for practically everything BT related!
Others may have a different opinion of course

[Titan8990]

Okay now I know that, I am running backtrack 4 beta and what if I want to copy all my theme settings to a normal user. what would I do?

Theme settings etc are stored in home directories in hidden dirrectories. Just make a new user using Debian's adduser and:


cp -aL /root/* /home/NEWUSERNAME

[KMDave]

I don't know how far Muts intends to go with the Ubuntu style "sudo" - I suppose a sudoers profile could be set up to drop and raise privs as required for most tools, but again, I feel that it would be more of a hindrance than a help, because it would be required for practically everything BT related!

I absolutely agree that having to sudo to everything is one of the major annoyances in Ubuntu. Sure it is dangerous to work as root, but hey, it makes you think twice before just doing anything
In my 10 years of Linux/Unix experience I never had an issue with working as root.
Just keep in mind to be careful

[Barry]

I absolutely agree that having to sudo to everything is one of the major annoyances in Ubuntu. Sure it is dangerous to work as root, but hey, it makes you think twice before just doing anything
In my 10 years of Linux/Unix experience I never had an issue with working as root.
Just keep in mind to be careful

You can make ubuntu log in as root. Not that hard to do, just a file edit.

KDE
File to edit.

/etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc

Look for,

# Allow root logins?
# Default is true
AllowRootLogin=false <-- Change to true.

Gnome
File to edit.

/etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom

Under security add,

AllowRoot=true

EasyPeasy.

[imported_wyze]

[KMDave]

Barry thanks for giving a detailed explanation. That was the first thing I've googled for after installing Ubuntu a year and a half ago.

@Wyze:

Didn't I tell you not to publish that picture of us