Why do things just stop working ? Mysterious errors..

Leigh · 2008-02-03 02:22:12

pyther wrote:

Not to jack the topic, but I've been able to run apps as root using su for ages o_o (I don't think I did anything special)

Same here. so I'm a little confused. Anyway, I started using sudo not long ago to simplify yauort and pacman alias's especially for my arch32 chroot. I would have perfered staying with su, but sudo is much more customizibale.

moljac024 · 2008-02-03 02:29:41

Don't know how to stop kdm from doing that...for the moment I switched back to slim..

finferflu · 2008-02-03 15:49:53

May-C wrote:

He does not like sudo!!! I think everybody has to respect that. I prefer sudo too. If he asks for a solution without sudo there is really no reason to keep telling how great sudo is (and yes it is really great IMHO). The nice thing about Linux is that everybody is free to do what he likes to.

I was not forcing him to use sudo, and I was not telling him how great sudo is for partisanism. I just felt he misunderstood what sudo can do (like also jacko pointed out). If after I have done my "job" to tell him what really sudo can do, he chooses to still use su, it's up to him. It's not about freedom and non-freedom

moljac024 wrote:

Hmm, if someone breaks into your machine can't he/she list your /home directory ? Wouldn't finding out the username be easy like this ?
Please explain to me how disabling typing the password for sudo is good and safe practice and I will start using it immediately

How can they break into your machine if they don't know your login details? Using sudo with root password disabled prevents people from actually breaking in. They aren't able to know your username before they guess it. And I think guessing a username AND a password can take a loooong time. Surely longer than only guessing a password only. So, the question is: how could they break into your machine if the root account is disabled?

Also, as I said, disabling the password for sudo allows you to create an even more complicated password. Why? Because you can create a very long and complicate password without bothering about the difficulty to type it everytime, since you would only need it to login into your box once. So, not only you have a safer username than "root", you also have a very ultra secure password (as much as a password can be safe at all).

Does this make sense to you?

Last edited by finferflu (2008-02-03 15:56:12)

moljac024 · 2008-02-03 16:44:33

Yes. But my root password just can't be guessed. Seriously, it's basically a random string of uppercase, lowercase chars and numbers. With no relation to me whatsoever, so even people who do know me don't have much to work with for guessing it. And my username password is weaker. I do understand sudo and su and the differences between the two.

And I believe they should both be used.

As for the password-less sudo, how about this: I go away from my computer for a short time, what happens then ? Anyone with physical access to the computer is free to do what they want... just doesn't sound too secure to me.

finferflu · 2008-02-03 18:01:44

moljac024 wrote:

As for the password-less sudo, how about this: I go away from my computer for a short time, what happens then ? Anyone with physical access to the computer is free to do what they want... just doesn't sound too secure to me.

Lock screen
I'm confident with a password-less sudo because my computer is always home in my room.

moljac024 · 2008-02-03 18:08:17

Just seems too windowish for my taste

Arch Linux

#26 2008-02-03 02:22:12

Re: Why do things just stop working ? Mysterious errors..

#27 2008-02-03 02:29:41

Re: Why do things just stop working ? Mysterious errors..

#28 2008-02-03 15:49:53

Re: Why do things just stop working ? Mysterious errors..

#29 2008-02-03 16:44:33

Re: Why do things just stop working ? Mysterious errors..

#30 2008-02-03 18:01:44

Re: Why do things just stop working ? Mysterious errors..

#31 2008-02-03 18:08:17

Re: Why do things just stop working ? Mysterious errors..

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