[Malvern] Booting priveledges.

[geoff bagley]

Until a week ago I was running Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (Woody),  and it 
served me
well for ages,  particularly after getting broadband and being able to 
upgrade by
using apt-get.

Originally I had tried to use Gnome,  but later changed back to he more 
familiar KDE.

Strange thing was, I always got the Gnome "Welcome" bit and then booted 
up KDE.

It would only allow me to log in as geoff -  root was probibited.  If I 
wanted to be root,
then I had to do an  su  in a  CLI terminal ( on KDE ),  and give he 
root password.

Then I upgraded to Sarge,  and very good it is too.  I have had quite a 
bit of fun trying
out  all the extra goodies.

However,  the booting up bit is reversed.  It will NOT let me boot up 
the X window
server as geoff,  I  HAVE to be root,  and yet worse,  have to stay as 
root,  and play
as root.  If I give up being root, I lose the X window server.

That is the bit I don't like -  I should only be root when doing 
necessary sys-admin stuff.

What is the neatest way to  gain access to the X system without having 
to become,  and
remain root ?   My home directory /home/geoff has no .Xauthority file.

The upgraded KDE is nice,  and I am now running   Firefox  and  Thunderbird.
I have a problem with printing permissions using CUPS,  but I expect to 
hack that one.

Regards all round.

Cheers,

Geoff.