Best solution for silly error?

[Robert Heller]

At Sun, 27 Jul 2014 00:34:05 +1000 taig at melbpc.org.au,         "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> On 26/07/14 05:09, I wrote:
> 
> > Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid
> >
> > Initially I ran with one user, with admin privileges etc. Since I always
> > had to enter the main admin password to authenticate some activities I
> > was of the belief that I was generally NOT operating as ROOT.
> >
> > (Please, if someone writes, "yes, that was correct" I'll breathe a big
> > sigh of relief.)
> 
> Is anyone able to answer that?
> 
> Is it true that when a user has "Administer the System" as one of his
> privileges, but the account type is NOT Administrator, then he can 
> perform administrative functions when needed, but is NOT operating as 
> ROOT (except for those few minutes until the authentication expires).
> 
> If that's true, is there a time setting?

With Ubuntu (and I believe Debian in general), 'root' does not have a password 
and it is not possible to log in as root.  Instead one *has* to use sudo.  
With sudo, you prefix a priviledged command with 'sudo' and it asks your for 
*your* password.  Once authenticated, sudo won't ask you for your password 
again for some time period as a 'convience' in case you need to execute a 
series of priviledged commands within a short period of time.

Generally speaking, this is in fact the recomended practice, although some
Linux distros (eg RHEL and CentOS) do set up root with a password and will let
you log in as root.

I believe MacOSX works much like Ubuntu, with the first user created given 
sudo access, although MacOSX hides the 'gory details' with a 'pretty GUI'.  
Ubuntu also hides the 'gory details' with a 'pretty GUI', but not everthing 
is buried under a 'pretty GUI', so Ubuntu users will sometimes have to fire up 
a terminal window and use the CLI tools.  OTOH, MacOSX does have a terminal 
program, if one hunts for it and bash, etc. is there if you want it, although 
few Mac users ever had any reason to go there.


> 
> GaryT
> 
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller at deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services