[Sussex] Newcomer

[Steve Dobson]

Dave

On Tue, Sep 20, 2005 at 10:39:02AM +0100, Dave Chapman wrote:
> Login as martin then in the xterm type 
> su

When `su'ing to root one should always use "su -".  The flag causes the
su(1) command to throw away the current users profile and replace it
with the new users (the default being root).  Of course to be really
safe you should use "/bin/su -" to make sure your not using a user
hacked version of su(1).

This is a good security step.  An environment can over anything on a 
*nix system, and the users could have trogan horse libraries that 
capture passwords and the like.

> 	then the root password that you should have setup during install
> Then type 
> yast2
> 	If that does not work try
> yast
> 
> yast2 is the nicer graphical version of yast

If you're going to be using a graphical program then before using "su -"
one needs to first run the command "xhost +".  This allows any user to
put a graphical window upon the user's display.  If you don't use "su -"
but just "su" then the user's environment is still in place and his
graphic authority is being used.

Once you have "su -"ed then you also need to issue the command:
   export DISPLAY=:0.0
in order for the graphics programs to know where to put their displays.


Steve

-- 
The state of some commercial Un*x is more unsecure than any Linux box
without a root password...
	-- Bernd Eckenfels
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