set up a root password

[Nigel Henry]

On Tuesday 05 August 2008 17:57, Derek Broughton wrote:
> Henri Girard wrote:
> > regards :)
> > Derek how old are you ?
> > i am 63 :)
>
> Old enough to remember dinosaurs, not that it's relevant.  I learned Unix
> well before sudo.  I respect your right to install a root password, I just
> think it a very bad idea to tell newbies to do that as their first task -
> and then laugh about how they might screw everything up if they aren't
> careful.
> --
> derek

Well I've got Fedora, Debian, Archlinux, and Slackware installs, and have 
gotten used to, and like having a root password. That said though, I havn't 
messed with the way that Kubuntu does things with sudo, and the users 
password.

It does get quite amusing from time to time though, when I find myself booted 
into one of my Kubuntu installs (DD, GG, or HH). On the CLI, when wanting to 
check for updates, I find myself typing su, and then expect to enter my root 
password, which is usually followed by a quite loud "Doh".

On the GUI, I've also been caught out when wanting to open KDE's superuser 
file manager, or any other GUI app that needs root access. The window opens 
asking for password, and find myself entering my usual root password, then 
get a complaint about wrong password, which quickly brings me back to 
reality, when I realise I'm booted into Kubuntu.

Personally I believe that having a separate root password (which I would 
expect to be more complex, than a plain old user one) is a good idea, as on 
most of my distros, and does give an extra step that a potential hacker has 
to go through to get into your machine, but I suppose if they are determined 
to get in, they will find a way.

5¢ worth of humor, and thoughts.

Nigel.