M Harris wrote:
On Thursday 22 February 2007 17:00, Angus MacGyver wrote:
Now taken a look at those settings, tweaked and rebooted but still a normal user cannot hibernate the system...
Please can someone point me in the right direction.
I would like to offer some philosophy, which when properly considered, may prove to be helpful ...
... this problem (and others like it, I'll explain in a minute) come up frequently because of our common windoze heritage--- a mindset that a personal computer is a single user application launcher. It seems on the surface that any user should be able to automatically mount or unmount a device... have access to all hardware ports, and be able to *suspend* or *hibernate* the system! In fact just the opposite is true. Only root should be able to suspend the system. Only root should be able to hibernate a system. Only root should be able to mount/umount devices, and only root should have access to the system's hardware ports.... in fact, only the kernel should have access to the system's hardware ports. Any true operating system will restrict system services (particularly those which bring the system *down* ) to the kernel and the root authority---for any truly multiuser multitasking operating system. To say this another way, no individual *general* user on the system should be able to stop the system nor do anything within their virtual address space that would result in stopping the system---- this is assuming that there are *other* users on the system (maybe even just system processes) that should not be stopped just because the user wants to suspend. Its not a personal computer... its a system. Unix and unix-like operating systems (including Linux) are true operating systems in every sense of the word (very much unlike windoze). Even though the machine may only have ONE user logged on *ever*, it is still a multi-user system which restricts the shutdown of the system to root. Many folks (and some distros) bypass this, and its a mistake. My belief is that folks need to understand what a real OS is. Those of us from the old IBM VM days, or the older UNIX days, realize that a computer is a system which should not arbitrarily crash, and which should not be subject to downtime do to the actions of any single user--- including shutdown, suspend, or hibernate. All of my systems (including my laptop) restrict all admin activities to root, including shutdown among many others. If root access is required my users su to root (if authorized) and perform the function with authority, permission, security, safety and logging. What I find is that people moving over to Linux from windoze will try to make Linux look and behave like windoze.... and thereby missing the whole point of moving to Linux in the first place. Some folks even take this to extremes (due to misunderstanding) and run *all the time* logged in as root... the way some windoze users always logon as administrator. The problem is that root on unix-like systems is absolutely dangerous... unlike the semi bogus administrator logon of windoze. If you force yourself to work within the restrictions of the unix system then the restrictions of the system will protect you and even become your friend.
Just words to the wise.
Hogwash! If I need access to something on a floppy drive why should I need to be "root" to get access? If I need to shut down MY computer for some reason why do I need root access? If I had a company and one of my employees needed something off a floppy I would hate to think they would have to wait hours for IT to get around to getting them access. It might just mean the difference in a sale or not. I can appreciate the need for "some" of the access restrictions in unix like systems. Mostly they are used in a business situation. You don't want every jack leg in the place screwing with the company system. I am not in an office/company situation. I'm in a home computer situation. I'm the only person that ever touches this computer. There should be some "switch" somewhere that will allow for home use. Some things do need root access. Most everyday things should not. Access to information on other drives is not one that should be hindered. I see it sort of like the government interference in our everyday lives. If I'm driving in a reckless manner, that's their business, I'm endangering others. If I want to hit myself in the head repeatedly with a ball bat, that's my business. I'm not hurting anyone but myself. [ I know bad analogy - it's late for me and I have to get up EARLY so I'm in a hurry ] -- (o:]>*HUGGLES*<[:o) Billie Walsh The three best words in the English Language: "I LOVE YOU" Pass them on! -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org