Ubuntu and permisions *plz help

[Ernest_P_Worrel]

Hello all I recently installed Ubuntu on my centrino laptop and although I like it very much, I'm having trouble with the permissions. I'm used to using SuSE and Red Hat/Fedora, so Debian is confusing to me. Anyways when I installed it, it never asked for a password for root, and I only created a user account never a root one.
The problem is I'm trying to install some homebrew linux games and it keeps saying I dont have permissions to install to directories, but I dont have a root account as far as I can tell so I dont know how to get arround this. Also yes the file I'm trying to install has read write and view permissions for this user. Thank you much;) .

edit: It looks like I can't even install or place links to plugins either, like java, because of the same permissions problem.

[DimGR]

ubuntu is using sudo

try sudo su


one of the reasons why i never liked ubuntu ...................................




oh wait

it never created a root account? are you sure?

[Ernest_P_Worrel]

Nearly positive, I dont remember it doing so all it did was make me create a host name for this computer for servers. And i tried logging in as root using the password that i would have used, but nothing just the user account is all I have. I do however like how Ubuntu installs nearly every language off of the one disk so when I'm browsing foreign language sites I see the language not squares, the screensavers are nifty too.

[DimGR]

so you can not use sudo su ?

[Ernest_P_Worrel]

Whats sudo su?>.>...................<.<;;;;

[abf]

here comes the local ubuntu whore.

during the install, Ubuntu does NOT ask to setup a root account, you can do that post-factum, but there is no need.

If you must gain root privilages just go to console and type in "sudo su" or "sudo -s" and type in your password. Congrats! you're now in root mode!


DimGR....too bad you never liked Ubuntu. Its really great especially after some configs (see my Uber L33t Ubuntu thread). If properly configured sudo is more secure than a root as we know it in other linux :)

[Ernest_P_Worrel]

Oh ok thanks. What in the world does sudo su stand for? Is this sudo su thing used on debain as well or just ubuntu?

[abf]

sudo can be installed and configured on just about any distro you wish. ubuntu just uses it for default. beats me what it stands for, all i know is that i can use it and it too ain't not bad.


a big benefit about sudo is that you can run an app in root mode without actually being in root.

for example if i want to install a file name dukeisawanker.deb i can approach it one of 2 ways.

way1:
# : sudo su (or sudo -s)
password : ****
#: dpkg -i dukeisawanker.deb

way 2:
#: sudo dpkg -i dukeisawanker.deb
password: ****



both ways get the same thing done, sudo is just well...better ;)

[Ernest_P_Worrel]

Ok now I'm stuck again I got my garagegames installed, but I cant get Java going on Firefox cuz I dont know how to use the terminal to relocate a link to a java plugin into the firefox plugin folder. I have to be in root to relocate it, so I have to use the terminal, and I've always just placed links with dragging and dropping on the desktop folders.

[abf]

http://java.com/en/download/help/5000010500.xml#selfextracting <---- big help installing java.


to use the terminal, you can install java (or copy the plugin file) 2 ways:.

to copy a file in terminal
#1)

#: cd /source-folder
#: sudo cp name.file /destination-folder/name.file


what you're doing above is going to your source folder, and copying the name.file to a different destination folder as root (thus the sudo) with a name.file name (you can change the name if you wish generally. but not when installing files, the plugin name is important)


way 2: symlink

#: cd /source-folder
#: sudo ln -s file.name /destination-folder/file.name


this doesn't physically move the file, but the effect is the same.

[bigtrouble77]

I'm so used to using sudo that I really prefer it now. It's such a pain constantly switching over to root to install apps, and then I always forget i'm still logged in as root and do a ton of things under that account that were meant for my account.

I went ahead and installed sudo on my gentoo machine to feel back at home.

[seablade]

I use sudo myself all the time as well. I am considering disabling my root accounts in preference for using sudo.

For the record SUDO stands for Super-User DO

SU stands for substitute user.

Yes i realise there is inconsitancy there. The SUDO definition is in fact from the SUDO webpage, the SU definition is the one that has been used in UNIX for some time.

Seablade

[Ernest_P_Worrel]

Ok thanks much I got the link copied. ;)

[amosbatto]

If you decide to set up a root password in ubuntu, it screws up the sudo command so you can't use it with your normal username--at least that is what happened to me. Here is how I fixed it:

$ su
# nano /etc/sudoers

Give your normal user root priveleges by adding this line to the bottom of the sudoers file:

your-user-name ALL=(ALL) ALL