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Terminal issue

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Terminal issue

#41 Post by GarryRicketson »

Nice! I wonder though, if a user opts to NOT issue a root password on install, I suspect that sudo is probably installed during the setup
Yes, that is correct on the newer Debian versions, However, my opinion only, but I think it is rather naive, and silly to not set a root password when installing.
If something goes wrong, like it did with the OP here, and "sudo" is not working correctly, one needs to have that option, to be able to use "su", and login as root, if they did not set a root password, it is some what more complicated to get root access, all though still possible, I never can understand why so many people like to make things more complicated, not having a root password, nor being able to use 'su', can make things more complicated.
It does nothing to improve security by not having a root password, if some one wants to access the system, as root , it is still very much possible, and in some ways, "sudo" makes it easier. For example,... all I need is to know the username, and their password, then I can login as that user, "sudo", password, and do what ever I want, maybe edit the "fstab" file, just to be mean , or modify the sources.list so it includes ubuntu repos,...etc... :mrgreen:
Also a user that does not know what they are doing can do as much damage using "sudo", as they might using "su"....

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Re: Terminal issue

#42 Post by arzgi »

GarryRicketson wrote:
Yes, that is correct on the newer Debian versions, However, my opinion only, but I think it is rather naive, and silly to not set a root password when installing.
If something goes wrong, like it did with the OP here, and "sudo" is not working correctly, one needs to have that option, to be able to use "su", and login as root, if they did not set a root password, it is some what more complicated to get root access, all though still possible, I never can understand why so many people like to make things more complicated, not having a root password, nor being able to use 'su', can make things more complicated.
How would sudo break? Or any other pacgkage. If using stable Debian, there might not be any other reason than wrong configuration, and that can be fixed.
GarryRicketson wrote:
It does nothing to improve security by not having a root password, if some one wants to access the system, as root , it is still very much possible, and in some ways, "sudo" makes it easier. For example,... all I need is to know the username, and their password, then I can login as that user, "sudo", password, and do what ever I want, maybe edit the "fstab" file, just to be mean , or modify the sources.list so it includes ubuntu repos,...etc... :mrgreen:
Also a user that does not know what they are doing can do as much damage using "sudo", as they might using "su"....
Security is so much wider subject, than using sudo or root. I've seen people who have their root password on post-it sticker attached to monitor. Years ago there was even a distro, where by defaut was only root account. I don't remember which it was, probably it is no more available.

I don't think it's a security thiing when i use sudo. When did you last change your root password? Since I know my password is the only in this system, I change it often, it's long and difficult, but because I use it many times a day, I soon learn it and I don't need to write it on paper or rile. And I have installed some security packages. If I would take my laptop out of home, I would crypt some partititions.

Your last line, I think it is not sudo's fault- But it is true, user should understand the difference of root and user, sudo gives root privileges for 5 minutes (default).

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Re: Terminal issue

#43 Post by None1975 »

arzgi wrote:Years ago there was even a distro, where by defaut was only root account. I don't remember which it was, probably it is no more available.
And now there are such. For example Arch Linux and Gentoo (by default). Even in Debian you can not add a user if you want. The system will be the only administrator user. Everything in your hands.
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Re: Terminal issue

#44 Post by arzgi »

None1975 wrote: Even in Debian you can not add a user if you want. The system will be the only administrator user. Everything in your hands.
Err, maybe you meant something else that you wrote? There are adduser and useradd at least.

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Re: Terminal issue

#45 Post by None1975 »

arzgi wrote:Err, maybe you meant something else that you wrote? There are adduser and useradd at least.
Each Gnu/Linux system has such a tool (adduser and useradd). Apparently, in your specified system, there was such a tool, but it was not clear.
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Re: Terminal issue

#46 Post by GarryRicketson »

Even in Debian you can not add a user if you want.
Yes you can
Image
=== edited===
I have never seen any Linux, Bsd, or Unix, that root could not add users to the system, but have seen some that do not automatically set up a non root user account, in other words , the base install is just "root" as the default user,..but even on those, the install documentation recommends setting up a "non administrative" user, immediately, it is generally one of the first things one needs to do after the initial install. Most , installers now a days, do include the option to setup a normal user account, but one does not have to do that.
Just saying,..

==============
How would sudo break? Or any other pacgkage. If using stable Debian, there might not be any other reason than wrong configuration, and that can be fixed.
I apologize, worded that badly, maybe "break" or "broken" is not the right way to say it, but what I meant, for example, a wrong or bad configuration, or something, there have been several threads where the user could not get sudo to work, and in at least 1 , we had to explain how to boot as single user, and set a root password , so the user can log in as root, and start repairing the problem.
Even in this thread, when the OP started, in order to run the usermod command, they needed to use 'su', to modify how they had sudo set up.
Yes, I agree normally using "sudo", instead of all ways logging in as root, is better, etc,... just saying it is a good idea to set a root password, and have that setup correctly as well, just in case for some reason sudo does not work.
=== edited again===
to remove the previous edit.
Last edited by GarryRicketson on 2018-08-09 16:51, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Terminal issue

#47 Post by None1975 »

GarryRicketson wrote:
Even in Debian you can not add a user if you want.
Yes you can
Yes you are right. I wanted to write that you can create a user. There was a technical error. Forgive me.
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Re: Terminal issue

#48 Post by GarryRicketson »

No problem, and it is true, a regular user can not add users to the system, adding users must be done either using sudo or su, as far as I know,...
So any user not in the sudoers group, would not be able to add users.

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Re: Terminal issue

#49 Post by arzgi »

None1975 wrote:
arzgi wrote:Err, maybe you meant something else that you wrote? There are adduser and useradd at least.
Each Gnu/Linux system has such a tool (adduser and useradd). Apparently, in your specified system, there was such a tool, but it was not clear.
So what is the logic? He uses sudo, can't be Debian?

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debiman
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Re: Terminal issue

#50 Post by debiman »

4 pages of hit-and-miss because op didn't follow the advice given in the first reply?
GarryRicketson wrote:This has been asked a few 100 times on this forum, here is 1;
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... doers+file

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