I cannot login in after a fresh install, don't know root password, and it never asked me to create a user

Ewan Mac Mahon ewan at macmahon.me.uk
Thu Aug 4 18:44:31 UTC 2005


On Thu, Aug 04, 2005 at 02:09:56PM -0400, Tim Holmes wrote:
> Its not so much difficult, as it is STUPID.  I like Ubuntu, I use
> Ubuntu, but I tell you what, that one thing (lack of easy normal root
> access) nearly cost the distro a user,  that has to be the most inane
> idea in the entirety of the unix/linux world.
Sudo _is_ easy root access. Prefixing sudo to the commands that really
need root is a lot simpler than constanly popping in and out of root
shells every time you want to do something that doesn't need the
priveleges. Most admin sessions consist of basic things like navigating
around the fs, reading man pages etc. The old su way meant either two
terminals, constant su-ing and exiting, or running more things as root
than need be and increasing the potential of any cockup to have serious
consequences.

> I use linux to make things easier, not harder, and having to type
> extra commands to do my normal administrator work is NOT what I call
> easier 
If you must have a root shell using 'sudo -s' is not extra commands than
'su -'; it's three extra characters for heaven's sake. 

> If the user has the root password, he/she should have enough smarts to
> not go screwing stuff up. If the person does not need the root
> password, don't give it to them, but don't cripple the distro for the
> rest of us -- Setting the root password is the first thing I do on a
> new Ubuntu install
> 
Yay for you. Not having a root password isn't some sort of policy from
on high, it's just a default. The users who do 'have enough smarts to
not go screwing stuff up' can reasonably be expected to have enough
smarts to set the root password if that's what they want.

Ewan

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