Re: How to suppress the annoying warning message for gmc??

[Craig Orsinger <orsingerc epg-gw1 lewis army mil>]

On 17-Aug-00 Tom Gilbert wrote:
> * Craig Orsinger (orsingerc@epg-gw1.lewis.army.mil) wrote:
>> 
>> On 16-Aug-00 Telsa Gwynne wrote:
>> > However, did anyone notice the RH beta? That had a "show this warning
>> > next time?" checkbox on the warning...
>> 
>>         I like this idea. While it's true that new users need to
>> be reminded about these things, I've seen this message often enough
>> that even if I weren't already aware of the dangers, I would be
>> thoroughly aware of them by now. Besides, the best way to make sure
>> that untrained people aren't messing around in root is to not give
>> them the root password.
>> 
>>         And yes, I do occasionally need to log in as root.
> 
> The "su" command is for logging in as root... Why do you need to run X
> and gmc and all the gnome applications as root though?

        The two tasks I nearly always need to use a GUI-based
root login to accomplish are compiling a new version of the kernel
and figuring out how to install complex new software or hardware.
Sometimes "su" is good enough for these things, but there are times 
when you just waste too much time "su"ing and setting up a proper
environment for root. In those cases I just log out of an ordinary
user account and login as root.

> It's a shame if that warning is now disableable... If I had written that
> code, it would've shown the message then quit if UID==0 ;-)

        Like I said, if you want to keep fools out of root, don't
give them the password. For anyone else, certainly anyone who has
any business being a system administrator, the first few warnings 
should be enough.

        Actually, one alternative would be to have a root environment
that does not include mc or gmc - say a command like:

        gnome-session --without-mc

        or something like that. This would give an administrator
the ability to do most of what he'd be doing in a root account,
and would probably avoid alot of the dangers you're concerned
about.

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Date: 21-Aug-00  Time: 12:11:36

Craig Orsinger                  (email: <orsingerc@epg-gw1.lewis.army.mil>)
Logicon Advanced Technology
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Ft. Lewis, WA   98433                   - The Doctor
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