Torvalds:requiring root password for mundane things is moronic

[Chris Murphy]

On Mar 5, 2012, at 8:37 PM, Chuck Anderson wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 05, 2012 at 08:35:11PM -0700, Chris Murphy wrote:
>> passwd keeps complaining "The password fails the dictionary check -
>> it is too simplistic" for fake words NOT in the dictionary but
>> otherwise too simple for passwd's approval system.
> 
> I think you can just ignore passwd's warning in this case, it doesn't
> stop you from going ahead and using the simple password (unless
> something changed in F17).

Aha. So if I use passwd with liveuser, it says after three tries:
passwd: Have exhausted maximum number of retries for service

And does not change the passwd. But if I su to root, it still complains once, but does change the password after the Retype entry.

NEVERTHELESS. It's idiotic babysitting. And stupid that I need root to do this mundane task. I wonder how many developer man hours were required for this functionality.

Chris Murphy