Run as Root

[Robbo]

On Sat, 2005-09-24 at 19:19 -0400, Curtis Seyfried wrote:
> Thank you all for your answers. I did sudo and established a root
> password, but I can not login from the login screen as root?
> 

It's disabled by default, to enable it again..

System / Administration / Login Screen Setup / Security  and tick the
"Allow root to login with GDM"

> What I am really trying to do is to create subdirectories in /opt then
> to copy tar files into it and extract and install the apps in /opt
> 
> The various file managers refuse to do so because I do not have
> premission.

> BUT, they do NOT prompt me for su password ?

You could do "sudo nautilus --no-desktop", which will run the nautilus
FM as root.  (or create an icon with the command gksudo "nautilus
--no-desktop" if you prefer.

> I am used to logging on as root when I want to do such stuff, doing all
> of what I need to do, setting premissions for the apps so I can use them
> from my userid, then logging off and re-logging on as my userid.

"Applications / System Tools / New Login" will save you logging off/on.

> When I use Linux RH9 I can just run as the administrator. It is my
> machine, I should be able to do what I want how I want. I know the
> security risks and have used PC's long enough to be able to deal with
> them. 

Good security practise should be enabled by default to protect the not
so in the know, correct?

> MS Windows allows an administrator to run as a user.

Which is one of it's downfalls.

> Why does it always have to be so difficult to just run your own
> freestanding machine ?

> I mean I have virus protection, firewall, intrusion detection, and it is
> my box?

But it's our Internet that you may be effecting with "lack of
knowledge".  If Windows took "good security practise", we wouldn't have
as many viruses and trojans effecting our Internet.