The "root" account is the most privileged account on a Unix system.
24
votes
5answers
6k views
How do I run a command as the system administrator (root)
I need to run a command with administrative privileges. Someone said I should run a command as root. How do I do this?
10
votes
3answers
3k views
Can I launch a graphical program on another user's desktop as root?
Following are other questions which I think I need to know:
From a non X Session? (meaning root isn't logged into X)
If multiple people were logged in on X, could I auto-detect who was on which ...
21
votes
7answers
2k views
Non-Root Package Managers
From my research, I seem to notice that all package managers insist on being used as a privileged user and must be installed into /.
Typically, what I like to do is create a throwaway account, ...
17
votes
4answers
11k views
Reserved space for root on a filesystem - why?
I understand that by default, newly created filesystems will be created with 5% of the space allocated for root. I also know you can change the defined space with:
tune2fs -m 1 /dev/sdXY
What I'm ...
28
votes
4answers
1k views
Becoming root from inside Vim
Sometimes I start editing configuration files in /etc using Vim, but forget to use sudo to start Vim. The inevitable result then is that after finishing my edits I encounter the dreaded notice that I ...
10
votes
11answers
903 views
Concern about logging in as root overrated?
For personal linux on my personal notebooks, I've usually set my environment to autologin as root even under X or lower runlevels. I've found my workflow is very pleasant and fast, without any ...
11
votes
6answers
1k views
Is there a root password on OS X and Ubuntu?
When you setup a new Ubuntu or OS X installation a user is generally created for you. On OS X it is whatever username you pick. On Ubuntu (the server version) usually the ubuntu user is created.
The ...
7
votes
1answer
421 views
Lightweight virtualization on Linux with user isolation
What Linux-on-Linux virtualization technologies provide user isolation? Specifically, I want root in the virtual machine not to have any privilege on the host.
This was not the case for LXC, but was ...
6
votes
7answers
960 views
Is it bad practice to set root's shell to something other than the default?
Once a friend of mine (who is an experienced Unix/Linux user) told me that setting root's shell to something other than sh (i.e bash or zsh) might create problems, because some script might assume ...
2
votes
3answers
460 views
What does it mean to be in group 0?
Several users in a system I inherited have their group set to 0 in /etc/passwd. What does that mean? Do they essentially get full root privileges?
The system is running CentOS 5, and the users ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
Root password not working to log in to Gnome with gdm
I have a weird issue going on. I have a user account and I can login to Gnome normally. From a terminal there I can use su root and switch to root with my root password. However, when I try to login ...
19
votes
2answers
878 views
How does the power button shut the computer down without root permission?
When I try to shutdown the computer from a command line or terminal I must have root privileges:
amy@amy:~$ shutdown now
shutdown: Need to be root
and
amy@amy:~$ halt
halt: Need to be root
but ...
12
votes
4answers
604 views
How universal is sudo?
I was writing some instructions on how to install something (TeX-related - if you don't ask, I won't ruin your day by supplying more details) and used sudo to install system-wide. Someone commented ...
12
votes
1answer
3k views
Why are the first 1024 ports restricted to the root user only?
This is more idle curiosity than anything else. A friend of mine asked me 'which port range is it that only root can use under Linux?' I told him 0-1024 were restricted. Then he asked my why it was so ...
4
votes
2answers
6k views
How to get back sudo on Ubuntu?
I have done this:
sudo chown -R myname /usr/
and now I can't use the sudo command because of this error:
sudo: must be setuid root
And as I read this means that the owner of this file ...
9
votes
1answer
4k views
What is the difference between root and superuser?
Do they refer to the same thing or is root just a location in filesystem (its ultimate base) and superuser a privileged user (sort of equivalent of windows administrator account) ? Do they need the ...
3
votes
2answers
249 views
Permissions of webserver's root directory
I've had this issue on several setups, and I'm unsure of how to handle it.
At first, all of /var is owned by root:root. Clearly I don't want the web directory to be owned by root, so I do chown ...
1
vote
1answer
1k views
switching from user to root and revers (freebsd)
i want to make some modificaciones with root and then with my user, in fact i want to install sudo and he give me the error in the first step:
cd /usr/ports/security/sudo
make install clean
...
5
votes
1answer
2k views
Unable to delete file, even when running as root
I am in the process of migrating a machine from RHEL 4 to 5. Rather than actually do an upgrade we have created a new VM (both machines are in a cloud) and I am in the process of copying across data ...
3
votes
1answer
75 views
How does having /dev/fd make running shell scripts under sudo safe?
At the end of the man page for sudo, there's the following remark:
Running shell scripts via sudo can expose the same kernel bugs that
make setuid shell scripts unsafe on some operating systems ...
2
votes
2answers
185 views
Gaining root privileges in SCO
I am learning Linux for work, so am still a bit rusty on the edges.
I am needing to change the folder permission of the directory /opt, and I know in Linux, you do the following:
chmod 775 /opt
I ...
0
votes
2answers
456 views
shell script to execute in root mode
I need execute script that have commands which should be run in root mode.
If I put sudo before command then when I run script I see permission denied ( I don't have a chance to write password).
If I ...
