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

J.Markoll j.markoll at free.fr
Fri Aug 5 10:05:32 UTC 2005


Derek Broughton a écrit :
> Al Gordon wrote: 
>>On 8/4/05, Tim Holmes <tholmes at mcaschool.net> 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. 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 -- it annoying, clunky and
>>>a generally BAD idea.

>>I love it when teachers rant and call things stupid.

>>This sudo vs. root thing is really fun to read about every day, but
>>maybe there should be a big red page in the installer that says "The
>>root account is disabled by default - We use sudo instead."  Maybe
>>then, when people are informed of such an apparently radical change
>>and don't have to learn about it the hard way, we can stop discussing
>>it on this list.

> Not likely.  People like Tim _know_ why it's done, and still refuse to
> believe there are valid security reasons for doing it.  Personally, I think
> I'm pretty smart - but there has been more than one (probably more than 3)
> times that I have totally f*cked somebody _else's_ system when I executed a
> command in a root account when I was thinking I was in my own.  Once it was
> a large bank...
Untill the realisation of one or other idea to warn the former Linux 
users that no root account is there after the install, it can be 
practical to keep the link to sudo explanations on the Wiki at hand in 
the bookmark:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RootSudo?highlight=%28sudo%29

So I just added a 'Sudo' folder to the 'Ubuntu' folder in the bookmarks.
Two more details about root: there is a root terminal available in the 
menus. You need to enter the login password once.
You can unlock the root account, and use real root account.

But, the truly former Linux users never used root, although they could, 
but used sudo, to make their machine as safe as possible. Now that I 
know the trick, I wouldn't use root one another distro if I need to use one.

Adding one word to the command is uncomfortable: during one week, time 
to be used to it.(That's psychologic :) ... )

One more detail: I used to believe most commands needed 'sudo' to 
function. I was learned recently that avoiding even 'sudo' 
systematically, is _way far!_ much better than giving the root rights to 
an executary which does not need it.
For example, apt-get install needs sudo, but apt-cache show or apt-cache 
search doesn't.
dmesg doesn't, lspci does not need root priviledges with sudo, but
lshw _screams_ if not invoked with sudo. So I do as user for all unless 
bash answers 'command not found'.

Best greetings, J.Markoll.


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