HowTo: Change password for root

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klhrevolutionist
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HowTo: Change password for root

#1 Post by klhrevolutionist »

Many people use puppy daily but are unaware of the fact that puppy runs as root. That's probably already more detail than you want.

Lets get started:

1. Use puppy regularly. good

2. Make puppy a little safer. good

3. open terminal and type: passwd

4. Create a user to run applications.

5. open terminal and type: cd / && mkdir home

5a. Think of your new user name and then type in console: cd /home && mkdir YourNickHere

5b. Now copy these files to /home/YourNickHere
.bashrc, .fonts.cache-1, .gtkrc-2.0, .gtkrc.mine, .Xdefaults, .Xresources

5c. Open terminal and type: adduser YourNickHere

6. Run applications as YourNickHere by typing su -c application YourNickHere
example: su -c gaim YourNickHere

7. Make applications run as YourNickHere by default:

Edit application launchers to resemble this, su -c application YourNickHere
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puppylinuxw
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cant find this files on my puppy .gtkrc-2.0, .gtkrc.mine

#2 Post by puppylinuxw »

Im trying to follow your description making a user directory.
U give some files to copy into new user home.

But i cant`t find this two files: .gtkrc-2.0 and .gtkrc.mine.
This means that they are probably not there on my puppy 2.00 opera.

Is there a similiar file i schould put into the new user directory? A file .gtkdiffrc is there.

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MU
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#3 Post by MU »

.gtkrc files only set the look of some applications.
They are created for example by my Gtk-theme-selectors.
If you have none, you can ignore them.

Mark

amish
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#4 Post by amish »

Run applications as YourNickHere by typing su -c application YourNickHere
example: su -c gaim YourNickHere
if you are running it this way from rxvt, you may be happier with:

su -c gaim YourNickHere &

the & lets you have the terminal back so you can type more commands. it often still displays output from the program running **which can be useful**

you can go a step further with: nohup su -c gaim YourNickHere & ...that way, it won't spit potentially useful info into rxvt. these commands shouldn't be needed for making shortcuts/at all. just for typing them into the rxvt. thanks so much for this howto, klh.
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Flash
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#5 Post by Flash »

It seems to me that all this concern about running as root is wasted if you are the only person who uses your computer, or if you run Puppy from a multisession DVD or USB flash memory. In those cases, the worst you can do is screw up your own setup, which you can do anytime by logging in as root anyway.

Furthermore, if you run from a multisession DVD you can recover from pretty much any screwup by either not saving the session, or telling Puppy to ignore the last saved session when it boots.

Given the advantages of not installing Puppy to a hard drive, can someone please tell me why so many people persist in doing it? :lol:
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HairyWill
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#6 Post by HairyWill »

OK Flash
I liked using multisession, but here are some good reasons not to.
Computer doesn't have an optical writer (my laptop doesn't have an optical drive at all)
Marginally faster boot time.
When your kids play frisbee with your CDs you don't lose data.
Related to that its a hell of a lot more difficult to lose a hard drive than it is a CD.
Its easier to share data on a HDD across multiple operating systems.
Install to compact flash or USB for a computer with no moving parts.
You have to make the effort to save at the end of every session if you want to keep anything.
When you delete stuff off a HDD it really goes away (forensic techniques excepted)

Just a few. As I said I like multisession and am seriously considering, possible, looking at implementing multisession on a HDD or USB stick. Thiswould be to get the benefits of the file versioning, optional saves and ignoring sessions.
Will
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Flash
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#7 Post by Flash »

Thanks for answering, Hairy. Some of your points make sense, but some don't, at least to me.
HairyWill wrote:OK Flash
I liked using multisession, but here are some good reasons not to.
Computer doesn't have an optical writer (my laptop doesn't have an optical drive at all)
Marginally faster boot time.
When your kids play frisbee with your CDs you don't lose data.
Okay, I'll grant you those three. :)
HairyWill wrote:it's a hell of a lot more difficult to lose a hard drive than it is a CD.
Obviously, but on the other hand, if a DVD drive fails I can swap it out, including my multisession DVD, and keep going. Try that if your hard drive fails.
HairyWill wrote:Its easier to share data on a HDD across multiple operating systems.
That depends on how you do it. The native data format for CDs and DVDs is readable by Windows. If you want to save something to a multisession DVD that can be read by Windows, you can save it as a separate session. I've done that with mp3 files, and Windows 2000 saw them just fine.
HairyWill wrote:Install to compact flash or USB for a computer with no moving parts.
I'm not sure what you mean. It almost sounds like you're agreeing with me. :)
HairyWill wrote:You have to make the effort to save at the end of every session if you want to keep anything.
Well, if by effort you mean clicking the "enter" button. I mean, when I shut down, Puppy asks me if I want to save the session. All I have to do to permit it is click "enter."
HairyWill wrote:When you delete stuff off a HDD it really goes away (forensic techniques excepted)
I consider the fact that once saved to the disk, nothing can be erased or changed to be a potentially very useful feature of multisession Puppy, for some applications. I can understand that one might not wish to leave an indelible trail of everywhere he's been and everything he's done with his computer, but I can also think of many uses in business and government where that would be a plus. In the U.S. especially, there are Federal laws requiring businesses to keep email and certain other computer records safe for forensic purposes. In any case, it's pretty easy to control what gets saved when you shut down.
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Pizzasgood
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#8 Post by Pizzasgood »

It's much faster to set up a frugal install, because you don't have to wait for a disk to burn. Because of that, testing a puplet I'm working on goes much much faster. Shutdowns are fast and can be unattended (as in I write a script to do whatever, then run wmpoweroff when it finishes. I go to sleep, the computer does it's chores, then the computer turns itself off and my work is still saved. I can even run xlock while it's going to keep people from interfering while I sleep.)

It's more convenient because I don't need to fiddle with a cd when I want to boot. I don't have to remove a disk when I want to use another. I can have multiple versions of Puppy (standard, Pizzapup, Grafpup, random custom version, etc.) available from a menu, without maintaining volumes of cds.

It's cheaper, because I'd need the harddrive anyway for Unleashed.

It can be encrypted (though I don't use that right now).


Not that I have anything against multi-session. It just isn't the tool for the job in my case. Now, if I was more of a user than a developer, and didn't have so many audio files, and was a little more nomadic, multisession would be great. Although I'd probably go for the USB Puppy instead if the main computers I used supported it.


If you're in my boat and use a harddrive, there are certainly occasions where encryption or multi-user would come in handy. Both would be best for some, but for many just encryption would suffice. The majority likely needs neither, just a password to keep random non-gurus from doing random things.

But that argument is one of those "history repeating itself" things, and I don't feel like watching reruns tonight :wink:
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Flash
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#9 Post by Flash »

Pizza, you're definitely not the average Puppy user. That's who I'm talking to. :)
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alienjeff
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HD install

#10 Post by alienjeff »

Flash:

Why don't you ask the person who wrote the dialog for the Universal Installer? It specifically recommends full HD installs for ALL users.
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#11 Post by Nathan F »

Pizza, you're definitely not the average Puppy user. That's who I'm talking to.
I hear that sort of remark a lot now, but from my experience there is no such thing as a "normal Puppy user". We're so varied here there is no normal.

Really I think it is a bit simple minded for a person to think that the way they run Puppy is the normal way, and even more so to think it is the right way. If there were one right way to do it Barry wouldn't have made everything so incredibly flexible, or offered so many different ways to boot Puppy.

Nathan
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HairyWill
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#12 Post by HairyWill »

Because I love a debate, I'll defend my earlier assertions. I still think that multisession is very clever and useful. :-)
Flash wrote:
HairyWill wrote:it's a hell of a lot more difficult to lose a hard drive than it is a CD.
Obviously, but on the other hand, if a DVD drive fails I can swap it out, including my multisession DVD, and keep going. Try that if your hard drive fails.
You're not addressing my point just making a separate one. You wouldn't be able to swap out the DVD itself.
Flash wrote:
HairyWill wrote:Its easier to share data on a HDD across multiple operating systems.
That depends on how you do it. The native data format for CDs and DVDs is readable by Windows. If you want to save something to a multisession DVD that can be read by Windows, you can save it as a separate session. I've done that with mp3 files, and Windows 2000 saw them just fine.
Imagine that everyday I rip a few of my CDs to mp3 (not that I would do this of course as this is currently illegal in the UK)Using multisession I end up with a whole load of separate directories on the CD with my music in rather than one directory. I admit this is slightly contrived but it illustrates the point.
Flash wrote:
HairyWill wrote:Install to compact flash or USB for a computer with no moving parts.
I'm not sure what you mean. It almost sounds like you're agreeing with me. :)
No I'm not, using multi-session means that the computer must have moving parts, the optical drive. The mini-itx fanless crew can use all solid state parts to build a silent, vibration resistant computer.
Flash wrote:
HairyWill wrote:You have to make the effort to save at the end of every session if you want to keep anything.
Well, if by effort you mean clicking the "enter" button. I mean, when I shut down, Puppy asks me if I want to save the session. All I have to do to permit it is click "enter."
If there is a power or toddler blip your data is 100% gone. With all the other save methods you've at least got a fighting chance of retreiving some of your data, even if you are using a USB stick that only saves every 30 minutes. OK. I'll admit here there is also a very very slim chance that your hard drive is toast and you've lost everything.
Flash wrote: I consider the fact that once saved to the disk, nothing can be erased or changed to be a potentially very useful feature of multisession Puppy, for some applications.
It is "potentially very useful...for some applications" so is a shotgun if you like rabbit pie, I find all the small bones irritating and would get into trouble for having a shotgun. Seriously, you said you didn't understand why everybody didn't use multisession It only requires one application where being able to purge data is important to justify not using multisession. In the UK the Data Protection Act requires that personal data be destroyed once the stated purpose for keeping it has finished. Customer database of 1000 people, one person asks for their record to be deleted. Using multisession you are forced to start a new DVD with that person's data removed so that you can destroy the original.

Hopefully this justifies my earlier statements :-)
Will
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