On Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 9:22 AM, David C. Rankin
Since you are obviously new to linux and opensuse, let me give you a couple of tips that will make working with linux much easier and working with opensuse a breeze.
(1) For Multimedia (Music and DVD) playing and access, you must always enable the following 2 repositories that contain the players and various codecs needed to play multi-media files:
Videolan Repository - http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/SuSE/11.4/
Packman Repository - http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_11.4/
Well, I have added these two repositories.
(2) enable 'sudo' and 'su' access so you can run programs that require root permission from your *normal user* account by exercising root privileges *only* when you need it. The 2 tools you need are 'sudo' and 'su':
sudo - 'Super User Do'
example: to install a rpm you have downloaded:
sudo rpm -Uvh name-of-rpm-1.2.3.i686.rpm
su - 'Become Super User' (or any user with 'su username')
from konsole or xterm, simply type 'su' and you change from your normal user to root (or any other user if you supply a username). Then you can execute or access any files needing root access and then simply type 'exit' to change back to your user.
We will configure all of this from the command line. Open an xterm or konsole window so you have a command line in front of you. (I presume you have some sort of GUI desktop in front of you - kde/gnome/fluxbox) 'alt+F2 xterm' will work. Make the window big enough that it is comfortable to you. Then become root by typing 'su' and entering the root password. (you did enter one right)
First, make yourself a member of the 'wheel' group. Use the 'groupmod' command as follows:
groupmod -A yourUserName wheel
confirm you were added to the wheel group with the following:
[07:50 alchemy:~] # grep wheel /etc/group wheel:x:10:david ^^^^^ (yourUserName)
To set up sudo access for members of the wheel group (you), do the following:
in the same xterm (as root): type 'visudo' (that puts you in the vim editor editing the /etc/sudoers file -- always use 'visudo' to alter sudo privilege, do not edit the sudoers file by hand). Since you probably don't know vi, just do the following to uncomment the line needed:
Press:
shift+g - to move to the bottom of the file up arrow 4 times - to the line '#%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' home - to make sure you are at the beginning of the line over the '#' del - to delete the '#' comment character
it should now look like this:
# Same thing without a password %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
then just type
:wq - to 'write' (save) the file and 'quit'
Done with sudo! Now as your normal user, you can do 'sudo anyCommand' and run any command as root from your normal user account. (note - learn the vi editor over time, it will serve you well on ANY linux/unix system) A good cheat sheet for vim is: http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/vimcheat.html
Yeah, now I need no password when I type, for example: sudo /sbin/reboot and it reboots.
Finally set up su access without a password so you can become root from your normal user without a password as follows:
sudo vi /etc/pam.d/su (to open the file in the vi editor)
Now add the following 2 lines to the file:
auth sufficient pam_wheel.so trust use_uid auth required pam_wheel.so use_uid
There was no 'trust' in the second line (for whatever reason...)
(copy the lines by highlighting the 2 lines above and then alt+tab to the xterm with /etc/pam.d/su open in vi and press)
i - puts vi in insert mode 'press the middle-mouse button down to paste the 2 lines into the file' (or just retype the lines there - use arrow keys to navigate) esc - takes vi out of input mode (and back into command mode) :wq - write and quit
Done! Now you can su without a password from your normal user. Try it! Open a new xterm and just type 'su' - you should become root immediately without a password.
For 'sudo' it worked but for 'su' I still need to enter the password. Another thing is that I created an user (during installation) with a name, say, 'name1' and after getting desktop of 'name1', I changed this name to 'name_new'. But now when see the contents of '/home', the directory of 'linux~' is also there, which user is this one...? One directory is for 'name_new', that's okay but for 'linux~', I don't know, how did it come into existence...? -- THX -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org