On 27 Oct 2002, Radule Soskic wrote:

On Sun, 2002-10-27 at 14:16, Philipp Thomas wrote:

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<soapbox> First of all, please be advised that you should *not* start X as user root as the risks of severely damaging your system are very high. You should login as normal user and only switch to root where needed. </soapbox> Thank you for this advice. In fact, I already have heard about this earlier several times. Now, could you please make it more clear: is it just because root user's unlimited power (so if he makes mistake it can be a disaster) or there are other risks too? If so - what are these risks? Actually, I log in as root very often, since I am the only user on this machine, so I definitely would want to know more...TIA

One thing is the possibility of security bugs. If a program (like a browser) has a bug that lets scripts read (or even worse: write) any file, if you run as a normal user, the only files that are at risk are the files belonging to that specific user. If you run as root, the entire system is at risk. Regards Ole

On Sun October 27 2002 07:16 am, Philipp Thomas wrote:

Radule Soskic [26 Oct 2002 23:40:21 +0200]:

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Root user's Panel applets in my 8.0 pro disappear at random on startup - either all or just part of them. Then I have to add them manually each time it happens.

<soapbox> First of all, please be advised that you should *not* start X as user root as the risks of severely damaging your system are very high. You should login as normal user and only switch to root where needed. </soapbox>

While I agree with this, there are times when you must login as root to do all that you want to do. I get tired of having to do everything from the shell prompt because kdesu will not open konqueror.

Having said that, I'd recommend searching our support database. AFAIR, there is an article that deals with this problem. If that's not the case, try contacting our feedback team at http://www.suse.de/feedback

I noticed that the other person having this problem already did the search, and found nothing, I too am having this problem, and it is REALLY IRRITATING!! I have done all the YOU updates that can be done, and as far as I can tell I have a simple install. I didn't add anything that I had to compile until long after this problem showed up. -- See Ya' Howard Coles Jr. John 3:16! "The act of faith is the obedience of the understanding to God revealing, and the product of that is the obedience of the will to God commanding." Matthew Henry, on Romans 1:5

On Monday 28 October 2002 16.07, Damon Register wrote:

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While I agree with this, there are times when you must login as root to do all that you want to do. I get tired of having to do everything from the shell

I have to go along with this. A startup screen with CD-Roast says that it has to run under root.

It doesn't have to run "under" root, it has to run *as* root. Not necessarily in a full login environment. Look at "sux".

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I noticed that the other person having this problem already did the search,

I also searched and didn't find anything.

Could this be it? http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/thallma_rootkde_80.html

On Monday 28 October 2002 16.38, Damon Register wrote:

Anders Johansson wrote:

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On Monday 28 October 2002 16.07, Damon Register wrote:

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I have to go along with this. A startup screen with CD-Roast says that it has to run under root.

It doesn't have to run "under" root, it has to run *as* root. Not necessarily in a full login environment. Look at "sux".

I guess I am not experienced enough to understand the difference. Can you please explain?

Since I don't fully understand the use of the preposition "under" in that sentence, I read it to mean "while logged in as". The difference between logging in to kde to run xcdroast and running xcdroast using "sux" while logged in as a normal user is about a dozen kde programs running with root authority. That thought alone should be enough to scare you straight. If you do every little thing as root it means that a bug in a program which in normal circumstances is an annoyance, might suddenly take drastic proportions. It could bring down your entire system. A small typo in KDE could potentially wipe your entire disk. It's just not safe. Things you do as root are small things, using well tested tools. Even su-ing to root to run "make install" is really too risky. In a secure environment those things just aren't done.

What is sux?

A script SuSE hacked together to replace/reinforce su. If you use sux instead of su you can run graphical programs without bothering with "xhost" or other methods.

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Could this be it?

http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/thallma_rootkde_80.html

I don't think so but perhaps they are related? I found that problem a while ago and someone in this list provided the same answer which solved that problem.

fair enough, it was just a thought. Anders

Anders Johansson [28 Oct 2002 17:03:24 +0100]:

A script SuSE hacked together to replace/reinforce su. If you use sux instead of su you can run graphical programs without bothering with "xhost" or other methods.

Another possibility is using ssh with X forwarding, i.e. something like 'ssh -X root@localhost' . Now if you put your public key into roots .ssh/authorized_keys, you get root login without the need for a password :) Philipp -- Philipp Thomas work: pthomas@suse.de Development SuSE Linux AG private: pth@t-link.de

On Mon October 28 2002 09:39 am, Fergus Wilde wrote:

On Monday 28 October 2002 15:07, Damon Register wrote: <snipped>

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I have to go along with this. A startup screen with CD-Roast says that it has to run under root.

$ sux # xcdroast &

will cure that for you. Unless you want to do what it suggests, and set the xcdroast binaries suid.

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I must also confess that I am lazy and don't like switching so I would prefer to just stay in root.

It's a bit like that whole seatbelt business - you save some time by not using it until ... remember your web-browsers are now running with root privileges ...

All of this sounds great but it still does not work with opening a simple app like konqueror. I tried: kdesu konqueror $ sux password # konqueror etc. etc. I still get a lot of activity then nothing. The only error I get is this when running sux: DCOPServer up and running. //usr/lib/qt-3.0.3/plugins/imageformats/libqjpeg.so: Feature JPEG already defined in /usr/lib/qt-3.0.3/plugins/imageformats/libqjpeg.so! //usr/lib/qt-3.0.3/plugins/imageformats/libqmng.so: Feature MNG already defined in /usr/lib/qt-3.0.3/plugins/imageformats/libqmng.so! mcop warning: user defined signal handler found for SIG_PIPE, overriding /tmp/mcop-dhcolesj is not owned by user When I do the kdesu thing, I get nothing. -- See Ya' Howard Coles Jr. John 3:16! "The act of faith is the obedience of the understanding to God revealing, and the product of that is the obedience of the will to God commanding." Matthew Henry, on Romans 1:5

On Mon October 28 2002 10:12 pm, Anders Johansson wrote:

On Tuesday 29 October 2002 05.00, Howard Coles Jr. wrote:

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$ sux password # konqueror

Use "sux -". The extra dash means you get a login shell, with all environment variables reset.

WOW. Its amazing what happens when you do it right. Thanks! I may not have to login as root. -- See Ya' Howard Coles Jr. John 3:16! "The act of faith is the obedience of the understanding to God revealing, and the product of that is the obedience of the will to God commanding." Matthew Henry, on Romans 1:5

On Tue October 29 2002 03:43 am, Joe & Sesil Morris (NTM) wrote:

On 10/29/2002 12:00 PM, Howard Coles Jr. wrote:

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All of this sounds great but it still does not work with opening a simple app like konqueror. I tried: kdesu konqueror $ sux password # konqueror etc. etc. I still get a lot of activity then nothing.

Why don't you use the icon for Konquror under K>System>Configuration>File Manager (Super User Mode). Or do what I did and add it to the panel.

because for some reason kdesu doesn't work with konqueror, and that would include the icon in the K menu. -- See Ya' Howard Coles Jr. John 3:16! "The act of faith is the obedience of the understanding to God revealing, and the product of that is the obedience of the will to God commanding." Matthew Henry, on Romans 1:5