FC11 logging in as root - FC10 change not enough?

[Robert Moskowitz]

Dave Cross wrote:
> 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).
>   

OK.  So I enable group wheel with visudo.  Then I look into adding me to 
the group.

I see the following files in /etc that have group wheel: group, group-, 
gshadow, and gshadow-

You only said to add to group.

With just an editor like VI?   I went to System>Administer>'Users and 
Groups' and went to the Groups tab.  Wheel is NOT listed there.



>   
>> 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...
>
>