Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[CrazyChick]

Okay I discovered Linux yesterday, Puppy Linux today. So apparently, there's this restricted user named Spot as someone on #irc told me... The ReadMe.txt file of that user in the system (under root/spot) says:

To change from root to user spot, type this:
# su spot
# cd ~
Or, do this:
# su --login spot


My question is - where am I supposed to type this into?

[bugman]

open a terminal, it's the icon on the top row that looks like a tv

tell us what it's like being spot, most of us just run as root

[we are reckless]

[Flash]

Depending on how you run Puppy, and how you use it, there may be no advantage to run as user Spot. Do you run Puppy from the CD, or have you installed it on your hard disk drive? Does your computer have a DVD burner? Do you share a computer with other people? Have you been known to bork your computer? If you don't share, and practice safe computing, then there's really little reason to worry about running as root.

[dejan555]

True, true...

Whenever someone just says "Type this" they think of terminal (aka console / CLI (command line interface) )

[CrazyChick]

Thanks guys.

I have Puppy installed on my hard drive, my computer does not have a dvd reader let alone burner, and it is not really shared but family can just come in and boot it if they need it and that's the idea (since my main computer is like fort boyard with passwords I don't care to divulge). Also I occasionally surf some shady sites, so it's probably a good idea to at least give spot a go.

Thanks again. I'll report back.

[nooby]

Hope It is ok to ask.

What is good with Spot. What does it do? I have used Puppy now since Dec 2009 and I had not heard of Spot or if I had heard the word I failed to get what it was about.

So what is it?

[dejan555]

It's a limited user which is in puppy by default but most users don't know/care
It can't run X though but you can run any app from terminal as limited user if you change to it first

[nooby]

[dejan555]

Sorry, I didn't explain good.
You can run X apps as spot but you can't log in as spot and run X itself - that's mostly why puppy is not full multiuser.
when you switch to spot user in console you can launch X apps from that console but they will run with spot's priviledges (or non-priviledges )
So spot is not only for running CLI apps but it can't run X itself

[nooby]

Would it make me safer if I use spot when I browse the internet?

So I can start any kind of program except the xwin? No desktop or menu only a prompt to write commands in? But would not Rox work as a kind of browser of files?

Hahah I am so chicken that I don't even dare to test because I have a good working version of quirky now so I don't want to screw that one up by accidently change anything being spot.

[Bruce B]