Root in Desktop

[Samuel Thurston, III]

On 1/2/07, Peter Garrett <peter.garrett at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

> Which things "must" you have a root password for ? just curious....
>
> Peter
>

logging into your computer as root directly from the prompt, for one :)

some tarballs contain config scripts that prompt you for a root
password, I've run across this maybe twice ever, and I'm afraid I
didn't make a note of which programs i was trying to install at the
time.

It may not be common to actually need a root password, but I was glad
I changed mine manually when i found out there was a config script
laying around from the ubuntu install that had the randomly-generated
root password unencrypted.  I believe this little undocumented feature
has been fixed, but I enjoy a healthy dose of paranoia every so often.