[Klug-general] Baffled by Kubuntu

[J D Freeman]

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On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 02:07:43PM +0100, Mike Rentell wrote:
> G'day all,
>
> I'm sold on KDE so I downloaded a CD for kubuntu (64-bit) yesterday and  
> installed it today, overwriting / but keeping /home.

You'll learn :p

> All seemed to go OK and it has been running for hours now and is rock  
> stable - so that's a relief.

Good to hear.

> But the ubuntu way of getting root privileges has baffled me. I know  
> there is a sudo command but I can't seem to figure it out.

sudo -s, will prompt you for your password, and give you a root prompt.
Works roughly the same as su.

> I've installed virtualbox and that works but of course I must install  
> user mick into group vbox. How do I do that? There does not appear to be  
> any graphicy facility available.

adduser mick vbox

from the adduser man page:

"   Add an existing user to an existing group
       If  called  with two non-option arguments, adduser will add an
       existing user to an existing group.
"

> Oh did I say that it is KDE 4.0? Now there's a steep learning curve.
>
> I've found System Settings/Advanced/ Login Manager but its Users tab is  
> completely greyed out. The KDE 4.0 help file says that this page should  
> display a Administrator Mode button but it don't.

man adduser, along with its friends, deluser, useradd, groupadd, and
usermod. All should allow you to do it all, quicker, easier, and without
having to rely on KDE not to break something between versions.

> All I want to do is make a user/group change with a gui because I am too  
> dim to do it with a console.

No you are not to dim. think positive, and just give it a go. The CLI is
not something to be scared of, and it will make your life easier.

> Can someone please advise me, in words that a non-specialist would  
> understand, what I'm doing wrong. It seemed so easy on Mandriva - pity  
> it has become so unstable.

Hope this helps abit.

> All kind offerings gratefully received.

Julia
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