Making a user that has the root appearance BT4

[Soultaker666]

Hello,

I am having an issue creating a user that would have the same appearance as the root user. I am using BT4 in a dual boot environment with Win7. When I first installed BT4 Final on my HD with Win7 Ubiquity prompted me for a username and password for a non-root account. I then, later, had to reinstall BT4 due to some mistakes I had made running as root. I had wiped the preexisting BT4 partition and ran Ubiquity again(from the BT4 live-cd). Only this time it did not prompt me for a username and password. Now when I want to run BT4 I have to login as root as my non-root account is not there. I realize that by wiping the partition it erased that user but why didn't Ubiquity prompt me again for a username and password? At any rate, when I create a new user and login with that user I get the default KDE menu without any of the BT4 tools or options. Does anyone know how I would be able to create a new non-root user and make it look like the default root login? I appreciate any information and thank you for looking.

[xX_Spiidey_Xx]

It's simple, really. There's a built-in script called adduser.

Run it in Konsole as root, or on the command line interface (CLI) as root like so:

adduser <username>

For example: adduser spiidey

Follow the prompts, and you'll have added a new user to your system. Check by:

cat /etc/passwd

after you finish the adduser script.

To have admin rights on your new account, use

visudo

and below root, add yourself, IE:

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
spiidey ALL=(ALL) ALL

Press <CTRL>+O, press enter, and then <CTRL>+X to save and quit.

Edit: Ubiquity does not prompt to add a new user in BT4 Final; it used to in BT4 Prefinal, but has now been removed in BT4 Final.

[Soultaker666]

Worked like a charm. Thank you for the reply.

[purehate]

Umbiquity no longer asks for a user account because we removed that option. We prefer to run backtrack as root and suggest others do as well.

[xX_Spiidey_Xx]

@ pureh@te - Agreed; however for whatever reason, some people like to run BT as their sole OS, and as such, should not run all software as root (IE: chat software). And, it's people like this who will run software as root and get rooted - not necessarily our goal with BT I assume.

@ Soultaker666 - No problems. Just keeping to my promise to help newbies.

[Archangel-Amael]

@ pureh@te - Agreed; however for whatever reason, some people like to run BT as their sole OS, and as such, should not run all software as root (IE: chat software). And, it's people like this who will run software as root and get rooted - not necessarily our goal with BT I assume.

Actually if someone runs BT and something happens it is out of our control. It is each individuals own fault if they make a mistake while working as root. The same holds no matter the distro one chooses to use.

[xX_Spiidey_Xx]

... It is each individuals own fault if they make a mistake while working as root...

This is an unequivocal truth. If you have root, you are responsible for everything that goes on within the system. I understand that BackTrack was intentionally designed to use root exclusively, but I don't necessarily agree that root should be used as a day-to-day user for those people who seek to boot BT as their primary OS.

Also, I realize that BackTrack was never designed for the new user/script kiddy who just wants a big red "Hack Me" button. Unfortunately, this is what happens when a loaded security distro like BT (or previosly Auditor/WHAX) is released to the general public. People go apesh*t for this stuff, expecting to find instant hackification. In my opinion, an interested individual is worth saving from the depths of skididiotdom, and should be taught the right way to do things from the start. (I just realized this comment could get me flamed bigtime, but I trust that we're all responsible, no?)

On a more serious note, BackTrack is a PROFESSIONAL tool that does require (imho) an intermediate - advanced level of Linux expertise. It was not designed as a beginners tool, but I see the potential for it to be used as a learning tool, from beginner to advanced. As BackTrack is now based on Ubuntu, I propose that we should not turn away those interested in learning Linux, but instead use this new, shiny, well-rounded distro as a starting point for the many Linux/BT newcomers. Begin teaching from the very basics of Linux (I.E. ls, man, ps, etc.) ON the BT distro, to maintain and build that clientbase, and ease them into learning the proper, ethical way to 'hack'.

We could have like a Jedi Training Camp for FNGs.

Cheers,

xX_Spiidey_Xx

[purehate]

We are in no way discouraging new users or beginners, we simply do not design our distro to run as anything except root. Its perfectly capable of handling users and being a every day distro even, but that is up to the individual user to do.

[xX_Spiidey_Xx]

@ pureh@te: So, do you think that my proposal to aid/teach newcomers has potential to fly?

I've just seen so much of the basic "how do I..."s and other kiddy babble in the beginners forum that have been answered time and again, that I think perhaps a series of mini-courses on General Linux knowledge in a new, closed-forum to ramp people up to the appropriate level to begin the backtrack tutorials could be a good idea for the BT community.

I know that I have an interest in sharing my knowledge, and I'm sure that others would be interested in donating material for the courses.

[skinnypuppy]

I have to agree with xX_Spiidey_Xx on this. So many questions as of late are generally repeats of the same old tired "how do I enable this, how can I dual boot this, I installed this and it broke my system" that could have EASILY been answered by searching the forum before posting, searching the net with Google, searching the old forums and so on. Do not misunderstand me, I will readily help anyone if I can provide said help, but to page through post after post of the same issues gets old.

Yes, I can opt not to come here "if it's the same old questions rehashed" before anyone states that, but I do like to come here to offer any help on questions that are out of the box and to gleam any info that I may not know that will help me. We were all noobs at one time, but really, should you be using THIS distro if you don't know the basics of *nix? So many of the issues could be solved with just basic *nix commands (man, cat, lspci, mount, lsusb, modprobe, dmesg, grep, nano, make, etc..) and then searching the forum or google for the error/s if you can't resolve it on your own.

This is not some point and click skriddie tool to pwn your neighbors wireless, hack a remote computer over my lan, etc.. There are some of us that put a lot of time into the study/methodology/implementation of network security and utilize this distro for just that reason. I don't know if utilizing a separate forum to "ramp people up to the appropriate level" per xX_Spiidey_Xx's request is appropriate since most of the information on the tools in BT4 and *nix in general are available on the net, through books, classes, when you first create an account here (http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...ad-thread.html) etc. but if that is what it takes to make this a better, more informed place, I would be more than willing to offer any tut's on *nix basic usage as I've been using it for nearly 20 years and some of the tools since they first came out in the late 90's.

That is my two and a half cents on the subject. Sorry if it offends anybody, I tried not to come off as some "I'm a uber-hacker and you do not belong here" but reading xX_Spiidey_Xx's post prompted me to offer him some support in the subject and hopefully change a few things to make this a better and more informative place for everyone.