Text 15907, 100 rader
Skriven 2012-06-30 12:35:00 av Paul Quinn (3:640/384)
  Kommentar till text 15906 av Ed Vance (2339.fi-linux)
Ärende: U'U/vBox
================
Hi! Ed,

On Thu, 28 Jun 12, you wrote to me:

 PQ>> EV>> I wandered a bit around the Ubuntu Help and I learned a few
 PQ>> EV>> things but not how to make MY Account be in charge.
[ ...trimmed... ]
 EV> The user account I made in 7.04 I allowed myself to be able to change
 EV> things.

Sorry Ed, I don't know about 7.04 as I couldn't get U'u to run on any hardware
here till about 2009 (a 09.xx version perhaps).  I'm still running 10.04 LTS
(April 2010)...

 EV> Wouldn't/Shouldn't selecting the restricted mode be better for me
 EV> until I get used to how Linux works?

Depending on version (taking into account if there maybe differences in the way
that U'u works between versions), yes.  In this version, the user created
during install is a regular user.  "Restricted" you say, yes, I agree.  However
that user is also user #1, and is allowed the SU functionality.  I.e., whenever
some earth-shattering event requires a SU god-like action then U'u will prompt
for that user's password which was entered during the installation process.  It
may be the same password as for the login password required for your user (if
your U'u prompts you for a password on startup) but it also allows SU abilities
later on.

Here's a "kind of" demonstration.  The first command line is simply a DIR of
files with a filename matching the pattern host* in the '/etc' sub-dir (the
"-halp" options is how I like to have the "ls" to work, if/when I use it
[rarely]).

[//Dell560/home/paul]ls -halp /etc/host*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   92 2010-04-23 19:45 /etc/host.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    8 2010-10-19 17:17 /etc/hostname
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 1.9K 2011-08-09 21:15 /etc/hosts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  580 2010-04-29 22:25 /etc/hosts.allow
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  880 2010-04-29 22:25 /etc/hosts.deny

Notice the 'access rights' for _every_ file: "root" (the SU, who owns them and
can change/edit them but other users are allowed to read/list them [only]).

The next command is a simple copy ("cp").  (Recall that the tilde character
("~") is shorthand in linux for the user's home directory.)  Because I, as a
normal user, have access rights to 'read' the "hosts" file, it means that I can
also copy the file.  That's all I'm doing: I'm copying the '/etc/hosts' file to
my user's home directory ('/home/paul').

[//Dell560/home/paul]cp /etc/hosts ~

That's it, done.  (If there's no error messages or 'status' messages then the
command succeeded.)  Now, confirm with another 'ls' that it's been copied (for
my sanity)...

[//Dell560/home/paul]ls -halp ~/host*
-rwxr--r-- 1 paul paul 1.9K 2012-06-30 11:06 /home/paul/hosts

Oh look!  It even changed the access rights over to giving full access to me! 
Wow!  I can do anything I like with that copy.  (However, that's outside the
scope of my 'demonstration' for the present.)  The next command is the
punch-line, where I try to _move_ the file (i.e. with the "mv" command)...

[//Dell560/home/paul]mv /etc/hosts ~
mv: cannot move `/etc/hosts' to `/home/paul/hosts': Permission denied

It won't let me.  Why is that?  Two reasons.  #1, I ("paul") don't own it, and
#2, I don't have any access rights to modify/change/edit the original file.  I
can only read and, as we found, copy it.

At this point, if I really do need to move the file then I have to don my SU
outfit (Clark Kent, in the phone box thing), and invoke the command "sudo"
(SUdo [this command])...

[//Dell560/home/paul]sudo mv /etc/hosts ~
[sudo] password for paul:

Now, U'u is prompting for the #1 user's password entered during the install
process.  That's why I originally wrote this...

 PQ>> If you ever need to access facilities requiring the SU functionality
 PQ>> then U'u will prompt you for the password that you entered for your
 PQ>> account.

There will be other times and other programs that may prompt for the SU
password.  All it is is that password that you initially entered during
install.  Your regular account (and any others that you create) are all
"restricted", already.  That's how U'u works.

N.B.  I should mention that U'u does in fact have a separate SU/root account
(like other Linuxes, and Windows' "Administrator") but with the 'sudo' facility
you don't actually have to login to it, and, is universally NOT recommended.

I have the feeling now that I've gone overboard.  Do I need smack! in the
chops?  ;-)

Cheers,
Paul.

--- 
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