How to disable root account?

[Joe(theWordy)Philbrook]

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It would appear that on Jun 21, Freddie Cash did say:

> On Wed, June 21, 2006 5:32 am, Derek Broughton wrote:
> > Joe Hart wrote:
> >> I prefer the standard linux way of having a root account, and when
> >> apps ask for the root password, that is what they get.  Why other
> >> would KDE be asking for the root password when you type kdesu
> >> command?
> 
> > I don't follow - kdesu has _never_ asked me for a root password. When
> > apps ask for a root password, I'm sure that's what they'd get, but
> > none of my apps ever ask for a root password. -- derek
> 
> kdesu as shipped with KDE asks for the root password.  You have the
> option to change it to ask for the user's password.
> 
> kdesu as shipped with Kubuntu asks for the user's password.  Not sure
> if you have the option to change it to ask for the root password or
> not.

I don't know about changing kdesu back to it's original root password
behavior. But I found a workaround of sorts...

I have an active root login. My normal user account is pointedly NOT a
sudoer. if I really need to use sudo, I first use su to my admin account
for which sudo works, But if I need kdesu to start something {like
perhaps ksysguard} with root privileges I can do so from a terminal window
by wrapping up the kdesu command inside an su command which asks for the
root password, and then evidently passes authentication to the kdesu
command that then doesn't ask for a password.

Command line example:
su root -c "kdesu -u root -c ksysguard"

This works for me. But I would dearly like to know how to get kubuntu's
kdesu to use the original kdesu password system where I could as a
non-privileged user "jtwdyp" open a konsole as another non-privileged
user "joker" (using jokers default konsole settings for font, color,
etc...) as long as I know jokers password.  
with Fedora or mandrake:

kdesu -u joker -c konsole

will ask for "joker's password" NOT root's, nor mine, and works even if
I'm using a NON-sudoer account. 

To do this in kubuntu, I must either be using a sudoer account when
I type:

kdesu -u joker -c konsole

And then give the sudoer account's password.

Or I can use:

su root -c "kdesu -u joker -c konsole"

And use the root password.



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|			
|        -=-   -=-	 I'm NOT clueless...    	
|        <?>   <?>    	But I just don't know.  	
|            ^          Joe (theWordy) Philbrook           
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|			  <jtwdyp at ttlc.net> 
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