On Monday 28 October 2002 16.38, Damon Register wrote:
Anders Johansson wrote:
On Monday 28 October 2002 16.07, Damon Register wrote:
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.
Could this be it?
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