triscele wrote:FileManager lets me get to files but I can not enter a root password to do anything and so far the only way I have been able to do anything is to run Nautilus from a terminal window (it throws an error message but seems to get the job done anyway.)
Default security settings in Debian assume a new user can cause a great deal of damage by doing stuff to the file system as root user.
A user owns everything in their 'home' folder, but requires special privileges elsewhere.
The preferred method is to temporarily become root, to gain access, and root is discouraged from gui applications because of the ease with which mistakes can happen in gui mode -- it's easier to mis-click than it is to mis-type!
You may, however, wish to use
sudo in order to temporarily acquire root privileges, even in a gui application.
Unlike Ubuntu, which uses 'sudo' by default, Debian doesn't even install sudo during a typical install. To install sudo:
- Code: Select all
aptitude update
aptitude install sudo
Then, as root, you may edit the
sudoers file, as follows:
- Code: Select all
visudo
nano, (not vi), will open
/etc/sudoers.tmp, which you may edit and save as sudoers (<ctrl><o> and backspace to remove the '.tmp')
You'll add a line for your regular user, for example 'bob' -- so the file will look something like this:
- Code: Select all
# /etc/sudoers
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#
Defaults env_reset
# Host alias specification
# User alias specification
# Cmnd alias specification
# User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
# Uncomment to allow members of group sudo to not need a password
# (Note that later entries override this, so you might need to move
# it further down)
# %sudo ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL
bob ALL=(ALL) ALL
For most graphical applications you want to run with root privileges, preface the name of the app with
gksudo, (gnome) or
kdesudo, (kde), installation of which will probably be necessary via aptitude.
When prompted, enter your user password, not the root password.
Be extremely careful, and realize you may break things...