-----Original Message----- From: John Seago [mailto:johnseago@two-ravens.org.uk]
Open xterm, su to root, pppconfig. Done. simple. For network setup, edit /etc/network/interfaces (man interfaces will give all the information required).
There seems to be another problem there, trying su, in an xterm gives the answer authentication not recognised, perhaps I haven't installed sudo? What I have done is apt-get Midnight Commander, now I'm dealing with something I'm used to and its beginning to look a more realistic project.
John, "su" is short for "switch user". You can "su john" or "su jenny", for example. In the case of root, the "root" is not necessary, so "su" is the same as "su root". When switching between users you will be prompted for that user password, unless you are calling the command from root. If you are logged on to your Xwindow system as john and you open an xterm and type "su" you are effectively switching from user john to root - you should be asked for the root password here. Type it in, and if the $ sign at the prompt becomes a # sign, you are now root. The command "whoami" will also let you know which user you currently are.
sudo is a program which will allow you to run certain commands as root without having to switch user - so if you install sudo and edit the config file to say that john can run such-and-such a program, you can do so as user john, by putting the command "sudo" before the main command. It can be dangerous to charge around your system as superuser :-))) so it is a useful little program to allow certain tasks as a mortal.
Jen
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On Friday 18 June 2004 09:23, you wrote: <snip>
John, "su" is short for "switch user". You can "su john" or "su jenny", for example. In the case of root, the "root" is not necessary, so "su" is the same as "su root". When switching between users you will be prompted for that user password, unless you are calling the command from root. If you are logged on to your Xwindow system as john and you open an xterm and type "su" you are effectively switching from user john to root - you should be asked for the root password here. Type it in, and if the $ sign at the prompt becomes a # sign, you are now root. The command "whoami" will also let you know which user you currently are.
It is similar in Slackware, 'su' makes you root, except in Debian on a Konsole Debian asks me for the root password, which I give, which then produces "Authentication fails", I, in my over confident ignorance, knew that 'Sudo' is one of the things that goes in when installing setting up Slackware and as 'su' works for me in Slackware assumed that it might have something to do with 'Sudo'.
Given the foregoing I am doing Ctrl+Alt+F1 giving the root password and then, in the latest case editing the Xconfig-4 file to get a civilised screen resolution as the installation programme gave 800x600 max . I've also managed to install Midnight commander which at least make me a little more sure I'm on safe ground. The file heirarchy, having come to it from Slackware, seems somewhat illogical/over sophisticated. In fact my overall impression is the the whole thing is somewhat over sophisticated. Having come to Linux via Slackware where until the last release the whole distribution was on ONE CD, and if you wanted anything else you obtained it, (in my case with my internet connection on CD), did ./ configure>make>makeinstall/checkinstal and everything worked!
sudo is a program which will allow you to run certain commands as root without having to switch user - so if you install sudo and edit the config file to say that john can run such-and-such a program, you can do so as user john, by putting the command "sudo" before the main command. It can be dangerous to charge around your system as superuser :-))) so it is a useful little program to allow certain tasks as a mortal.
On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 09:46:52AM +0100, John Seago wrote:
The [Debian] file heirarchy, having come to it from Slackware, seems somewhat illogical/over sophisticated. In fact my overall impression is the the whole thing is somewhat over sophisticated. Having come to Linux via Slackware where until the last release the whole distribution was on ONE CD, and if you wanted anything else you obtained it, (in my case with my internet connection on CD), did ./ configure>make>makeinstall/checkinstal and everything worked!
-- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)
I too came to Debian from Slackware, but I did have a little hand holding during my first install. After that I discovered the joys of apt-get shortly followed by either "Ah, it just works" or "Hmm, where did that config file go". X has been tricky for me because of a lack of a clear distinction between v3 and v4 of XFree86 in Stable.
For my next desktop I'll be trying to install Knoppix which I have found amazingly good running directly from the CD (yeah, slow, I know but it understood all my 21st century hardware).
Good luck!
Tim.
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Jenny Hopkins -
John Seago -
Tim Green