On 12/11/11 13:54, Michal Kubecek wrote:
On So� 12.� listopad� 2011,� 10:32:38� CET, Sid Boyce wrote:
I am curious as I have had quite protracted email discussions with a guy about runlevels. He insists using init 3 and startx is the only way to boot a system but has never put forward a sane and rational answer as to why. As a matter of fact, no answer at all other than incoherent rants against xdm/gdm/kdm.
There is one big disadvantage of the "runlevel 3 and startx" approach: one needs to set SUID bit on the X server binary. Given that there are bugs in it from time to time that allow a normal user to circumvent file permissions, this is not a good idea if you can avoid it easily.
Booting to runlevel 3 and using startx was common in 90's as memory was expensive so there was no reason to run xdm and X server when you worked on a VT most of the time and X session was started only when you really needed to use some graphical application. Nowadays, the situation is completely different: either you have a desktop where you work in a DE all the time (unless something goes wrong) or you have a server where you usually don't have an X server at all.
Michal Kubeček
That's completely my understanding also, but the guy needs KDE to run an array of KDE apps. After quite a saga he discovered he needed to set the SUID bit on to get X working. It seemed a lot of hassles to get a KDE desktop working. Never found out a reason why he intensely dislikes "init 5" or booting direct to runlevel5, just that he dislikes doing so. In the 90's, especially the early 90's we even had to calculate the config settings using a ruler and a calculator then mess with altering settings here and there until you got a desktop that was usable, barely usable at times. 73 ... Sid. -- Sid Boyce ... Hamradio License G3VBV, Licensed Private Pilot, Emeritus IBM/Amdahl Mainframes and Sun/Fujitsu Servers Tech Support Senior Staff Specialist, Cricket Coach Microsoft Windows Free Zone - Linux used for all Computing Tasks -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org