F10 and no root login - impossible to maintain systems!

[Benjamin LaHaise]

Hi folks,

I've been holding back my tongue on this one, but I've been bitten by it 
enough times now that I think I can write something with a clear head.  To 
put it shortly: disallowing root logins by default is a complete headache 
for systems where anything goes wrong.  I've run into several different 
failure modes now: if / and /tmp get full, it's impossible to login as a 
normal user, and if NFS goes down and /home isn't accessible, one cannot login 
to fix the problem.

I think the push for never allowing root to login is daft and inconsiderate 
of the needs of users who maintain systems.  I much prefer the F9 policy of 
putting up a warning and allowing me to proceed -- I know it's impossible to 
make everything on the desktop root-safe and I don't expect it.  The system 
should not decree that it knows better than me, though.

		-ben