From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Fri, 10/24/2025 5:47 AM, s|b wrote:   
   > On Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:32:33 +0100, Chris Elvidge wrote:   
   >   
   > 8< snip >8   
   >> Never run X/Wayland as root!   
   >> Autologin should have been 'boss'.   
   >   
   > Yesterday, we found out how to make another account without admin   
   > rights. Today, I noticed under settings you can also make a guest   
   > account.   
   >   
   > So if we're going to do to help other people, the best way is to make an   
   > account with root access, then make an account (with password) with no   
   > root and the autologin with the latter?   
   >   
   > How can I access the root account if I do this? Autologin and then   
   > simply sign in with the root account?   
   >   
      
   The root account is not set up with a password in LM.   
      
   https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2273852#p2273852   
      
       "chroot in a live session will do it"   
      
   What that means, is you boot the Linux Live USB stick, and   
   once the OS is loaded, the ordinary hard drive your machine is using   
   can be edited. The "chroot" or change-root, allows access   
   to the OS-at-rest. You notice in that article, after   
   the chroot is activated, they use   
      
       passwd root   
      
   to make changes while chrooted in and making changes to   
   /dev/sda2 OS or whatever.   
      
   *******   
      
   Example of chroot for Linux Mint.   
      
   https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=253270   
      
   # You can use gnome-disks to review your partitions, as well   
   # as looking at BLKID output. It's important to do this, to verify   
   # what the "sda1" and "sda5" values would be. Your install is unlikely   
   # to be "sda5" for the slash partition on the HDD.   
      
   $ mount /dev/sda5 /mnt   
   $ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi   
   $ mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev   
   $ mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts   
   $ mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc   
   $ mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys   
   $ chroot /mnt /bin/bash        # Now you're root on the hard drive OS   
   $ passwd root                  # Now you're setting the root password on the   
   hard drive OS   
      
   $ exit                         # We have left the chroot environment and are   
   back in USB-stick-land.   
      
   $ umount /mnt/dev/pts   
   $ umount /mnt/dev   
   $ umount /mnt/proc   
   $ umount /mnt/sys   
   $ umount /mnt/boot/efi   
   $ umount /mnt   
      
   $ df   
      
   Once you've removed the mounts in reverse order, check using "df"   
   command whether the USB boot OS is now "returned to normal",   
   before you shutdown. A pro cleanly unmounts things and doesn't   
   go around flipping power switches to achieve a result.   
      
   Now, attempt to reboot to the HDD OS, and see if you can   
   su root in there. Purely for amusement.   
      
   The security stance of a distro, depends on things being tilted   
   to one side or the other. Some distros rely on "admin stuff only   
   being done while being root". Others, allow mere users to sudo   
   stuff on their own machine. A machine with "sudo ls /home/otheraccount"   
   would not be secure as a multi-account machine (say the wife has an   
   account on the machine as well as the husband). If the machine   
   is single-user, then the usage of sudo is "OK" as the entire   
   machine belongs to that single user. When you pick up a Linux CD   
   in hand, it could be based on one scheme or the other. If sudo   
   with no restrictions in the sudoers file is given to a person,   
   it's better to not have a live/armed root account to complicate   
   matters (worry about sudoer resetting the root password directly).   
      
   Running as root, is a nuisance. It's dangerous for the machine.   
   There are usage scenarios, where you are blocked from doing   
   certain things, as from design the utility you're trying to use,   
   they know it shouldn't be run as root. You will occasionally   
   get an error message, that would not have happened if you'd   
   been running as "normaluser". While root is powerful, it's   
   also a restrictive environment when you're attempting to   
   have a good time.   
      
   *******   
      
   When I was a young lad, and I entered a UNIX shop, the first two   
   questions were cordially answered. On the third question attempt,   
   the departmental guru said "buy a book, then if you have questions   
   after reading the book, come back and see me". This wasn't the guy   
   being mean, and this was sage advice which I followed. We have a computer   
   book store here, with all sorts of technical stuff in it, and the   
   only limitation I had, was there was no book entirely devoted   
   to Bourne or Bash shell, and one book had a chapter on the shells   
   and that was about all. But that was sufficient for the job.   
      
   The UNIX experience I got, made it a lot easier to understand   
   some of the recipes in Linux. You could see patterns you'd seen   
   before, even if the syntax or utilities were not the same.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)