FC11 logging in as root - FC10 change not enough?

[Dave Cross]

2009/10/30 Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com>:
> Dave Cross wrote:
>>
>> 2009/10/30 Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com>:
>>
>>>
>>> At times I find I need to login as root.
>>>
>>
>> You really don't.
>>
>>> For example, as a regular user su to root, then start gedit from that
>>> terminal session.  Look at all the errors generated.  And at least in
>>> FC10, I could still change preferences, but in FC11, they all come up
>>> grey. There are other things in gnome that don't launch right from an
>>> SUed terminal session.  So when I want to 'fix' things, I find it better
>>> to just log in as root.
>>
>> I think you need to understand the difference between "su" and "su -".
>>
>> But really you need to get to grips with "sudo" as a better
>> replacement for "su".
>>
>> Steps I always take on a new Fedora box to make my life easier.
>>
>> 1/ "su -" to become root.
>> 2/ "visudo" to edit the sudoers file.
>> 3/ Uncomment the first line referencing the "wheel" group.
>> 4/ Save the file.
>> 5/ Edit "/etc/groups" to add myself to the wheel group.
>> 6/ Exit from "su -".
>
> Is this better than just adding your userid to the sudoers file?

There's almost certainly a good reason for doing it this way that I've
forgotten in the mists of time. Some ideas that spring to mind:

* This has been a standard Unix approach for as long as I can
remember. I was doing this on HP-UX systems almost twenty years ago.
* I can use the same method on my own desktop as I use on a larger
system where I want to give rights to multiple people.
* I only need to edit sudoers once. From then on I can control
permissions simply by editing membership of the group (which can be
done with a GUI tool as well as by editing the text file).

> And I will have to learn a bit about the difference between 'su' and 'su -'.

"su -" gives you a login shell. So it's as though you actually logged
on as root. "su" just changes the user. It doesn't, for example, give
you root's PATH.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

Dave...