[ubuntu-uk] Creating 'root' account.

[Tony Arnold]

Andrew,

Andrew Jenkins wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> Newbie Ubuntu-ite here.  So far so good, although I
> have a few questions, but one at a time.
> 
> I've been a Mandrake/Mandriva user since I ditched
> the dreaded MS four or five years ago.  I just
> thought I'd try Ubuntu (7.04) alongside my Mandriva
> 2005 on my laptop.
> 
> I'm used to the Mandriva way (as with most other
> distros) of having a 'root' account and then all the
> other 'user' accounts.  The Ubuntu method of asking
> for your 'user' password to then allow you to go off
> and create system-wide mayhem is really not suitable
> when you have curious kids. Again, typing 'sudo' and
> being asked for your 'user' password doesn't strike
> me as very secure.

There have been long arguments about this! Only the first user name you
create in Ubuntu can use sudo in the way you describe. Subsequent user
names do not have this ability, although you can give it to them if you
wish. So you could have your user name and give the kids a different
user name, one each. They then cannot do anything as root.

(On a technical front, the user name has to be a member of the admin
group to be able to use sudo. Also, by editing /etc/sudoers you can
control exactly which commands users can execute. For example, if you
wanted to let your kids shut the machine down, you could arrange that
without letting them do anything else.).

Just my two pen'orth.

Regards,
Tony.
-- 
Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester,
IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039
E: tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk, H: http://www.man.ac.uk/Tony.Arnold