[wellylug] UBUNTU 5.10 Dapper. First experiences!

[Daniel Pittman]

Rob Collins <robcollins55 at aim.com> writes:

> Gerald, I recently installed Kubuntu 6.10 on a friends 4 year old home
> PC and works really well.  I've been quite taken with the way the
> K(U)buntu system just "works" so i fully understand where your coming
> from.  I was like you and hated the idea of not having root login
> access to the xserver but have since got over that.  

You mean, being able to run the full KDE suite as root?  Eeek.  Even at
the best of times that isn't a good idea, because you can easily make
system wide changes that you didn't intend.

> I'm a keen KDE fan so I can only talk about Kubuntu in any depth (I'm
> sure Gnome has similar apps available though) but what I did to get
> around the root access problem was installed Automatix2 ("easy ubuntu"
> in gnome?) which eases the installation of all the commonly needed
> apps - firefox, thunderbird, java etc.  

A word of warning, then: the Ubuntu developers have identified only one
common thread among the various upgrade failures from 6.06 to 6.10 --
the use of scripts like Automatix2 and EasyUbuntu. 

They are not the sole cause, but they are one common thread.  Be wary of
this when you come to upgrading your machine in future.


> Also installed "Krusader" which is a root access file directories
> browser.  

Generally not a great idea, but yes, you can do that.

> You can launch a terminal from this app also so you have full root
> access at command line without the need for "sudo".  

A better way to achieve that is to run 'sudo -s' in a normal terminal
emulator, which gives you a root shell -- but runs the terminal emulator
itself without privileges.

That way you are better protected against exploits that attack the
terminal emulator itself; exploits that do, in fact, exist.

> You can re-jig the system to get root access login but I wouldn't
> reccommend it as it just "breaks" your setup as I discovered.

That surprises me.  For various reasons I have a number of Ubuntu
systems that do have a password for root login, and which continue to
work (and upgrade) as expected.[1]

Regards,
        Daniel

Footnotes: 
[1]  Legacy systems, basically, where root is required by something nasty.

-- 
Digital Infrastructure Solutions -- making IT simple, stable and secure
Phone: 0401 155 707        email: contact at digital-infrastructure.com.au
                 http://digital-infrastructure.com.au/