Re: installing rpms and being root

[Paul Warren <pdw ferret lmh ox ac uk>]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2000, Telsa Gwynne wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 21, 2000 at 07:06:56PM +0100 or thereabouts, bill.helke@cp.Novartis.com wrote:

> I'm never usually logged in as root. I run X (and hence Gnome) from
> my user account. When I want to do rootish things, I start a terminal
> with a different coloured background and type 'su' in the terminal.
> 
>     [hobbit@aloss ~]$ su
>     Password:
>     [root@aloss /home/hobbit]# gnorpm
> 
>     GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager:
>     Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols
>     specified are supported and host-based authentication failed.
> 
> I'm not sure what GnomeUI is burbling about, but GnoRPM started,
> and I uninstalled a package to make sure. I appear to have lost
> color-yahtzee entirely successfully. 
> 
> Actually, if someone could explain what it -is- burbling about,
> I'd be very grateful :) I would assume it's saying that the
> session manager didn't like something. 

It means that gnorpm could not connect to the session manager, because it
did not have the required authentication.  Cryptic huh?

Connecting to the session manager is only useful if you want your session
managed and saved.

If you really want to avoid it, try:

	ssh root@localhost

and take advantage of its X forwarding features.

> I use this procedure for linuxconf, mount, and other root-only things 
> too. I have the sudo rpms knocking around; I really should install those 
> and do it 'properly'. But having root stuff in one terminal with a
> different background and title reminds me not to hit return too hastily.

Neat.  I change the prompt colour to red :-)

> I used to colour-code windows by what machine each window had an ssh
> running to, but that got too confusing :)

I did this in the office, once we had a significant number of Linux
workstations.  If you have sudo privs on all boxes, knowing which shells
are on the server becomes, erm, crucial.

Paul