Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

whyrusleeping · 2009-11-11 22:52:47

hey,
i was wondering if theres a way to remove those ugly green bars from the x-window system(im using KDE) when im logged in as root. if i log in as any other user its not there. its probably something really easy...

thanks,
sleeping

Knute · 2009-11-11 23:17:08

Not that it's good practice to be logged in as root, but what happens if you go into the appearance settings and fiddle with them while you are root?

sand_man · 2009-11-11 23:21:11

Are you referring to twm?
I'm not even going to suggest anything except, DON'T LOG IN AS ROOT.

whyrusleeping · 2009-11-11 23:23:32

hold up, noones ever told me why its so bad to be logged in as root...

Knute · 2009-11-11 23:39:07

whyrusleeping wrote:

hold up, noones ever told me why its so bad to be logged in as root...

As root, you are kind of like the genie in aladdin but without the restrictions.

You have "ultimate cosmic power" but no "ittie bittie living space."

It means that if you type the wrong command, such as

rm -Rf /

and hit enter without meaning to.... Your system is hosed.

If you are a user other than root, the worst that you can do is destroy all the files in your home directory, but the rest of the system is still pretty much intact, and your computer is still usable as more than a paperweight.

whaevr · 2009-11-12 04:13:57

All of your themes settings and whatnot is also stored under your $HOME (/home/username) directory, so that is why when you run something as root, it doesn't look like any of the other applications you run as a normal user.

Yea...dont ever completely login a session as root though..your just asking for something wrong to happen.

sfabius · 2009-11-12 18:39:46

Knute wrote:

whyrusleeping wrote:
hold up, noones ever told me why its so bad to be logged in as root...
As root, you are kind of like the genie in aladdin but without the restrictions.
You have "ultimate cosmic power" but no "ittie bittie living space."
It means that if you type the wrong command, such as
rm -Rf /
and hit enter without meaning to.... Your system is hosed.

And don't think you'll never do it. I did (it was a slip of the finger - I meant to delete some directory lower down, but put a space after the first slash and poof! a week of reinstalling my system....). If you're a regular user, you can type it all first and then backup and 'sudo'.

quarkup · 2009-11-12 20:26:16

well there are other kind of "ultimate destroyer commands" as simple as

pacman -Rd glibc --noconfirm

and you would need to use livecd to reinstall by hand the glibc package's files.. like i did about 5 hours ago ^^

deej · 2009-11-12 20:34:20

quarkup wrote:

well there are other kind of "ultimate destroyer commands" as simple as
pacman -Rd glibc --noconfirm
and you would need to use livecd to reinstall by hand the glibc package's files.. like i did about 5 hours ago ^^

Ah, suicide...

I cannot imagine what you were trying to do in order to accidentally do that... it must be
a plea from a suicidal fellow Archer ! Try a little "pacman -S pathological" to calm your nerves

Deej

.:B:. · 2009-11-12 20:41:50

Bad practice is bad practice. There's usually a very good reason why people will recommend against certain actions. Why do you think Linux has utilities like su and sudo?

I will now clarify your topic title, so people who don't like your question can steer clear of this topic altogether instead of venting their frustration with said practices.

It might very well be some visual reminder of KDE to make you conscient of the stupid thing you are doing. I know SuSE used to give you a red background with bombs on it if you logged into X as root.

quarkup · 2009-11-14 02:17:35

I also agree with B

im my opinion while you are logged on as root you are unaware that everything you though it would safe to do won't be.

in an 'extreme point of view' you could even turn your box in a "honey pot" for hackers/worms over the net.
even linux uses iptables (a kind of firewall) to protect his own services (usually you won't need it unless you installed servers that act over the net, like apache/ftp/ssh)..
If you are interested in security, you can check many things which may sound new to you. I encourage you this way to read just a little bit about the OpenSSH service and the Iptables firewall (over the wiki) or even this guide: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sim … wall_HOWTO

well this is what I think.

@deej: i was trying to downgrade the glibc package (the -U flag does not replace the package... so I needed to pacman -Rd it first - )

Ranguvar · 2009-11-14 02:39:47

Knute wrote:

whyrusleeping wrote:
hold up, noones ever told me why its so bad to be logged in as root...
As root, you are kind of like the genie in aladdin but without the restrictions.
You have "ultimate cosmic power" but no "ittie bittie living space."

I need to remember that. So much awesomeness

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-11 22:52:47

Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#2 2009-11-11 23:17:08

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#3 2009-11-11 23:21:11

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#4 2009-11-11 23:23:32

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#5 2009-11-11 23:39:07

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#6 2009-11-12 04:13:57

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#7 2009-11-12 18:39:46

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#8 2009-11-12 20:26:16

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#9 2009-11-12 20:34:20

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#10 2009-11-12 20:41:50

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#11 2009-11-14 02:17:35

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

#12 2009-11-14 02:39:47

Re: Running X as root - How do I get rid of the ugly green bars? *

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