On Wednesday 05 September 2007, Bo Berglund wrote: >On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:32:57 -0400, Matthew Flaschen > ><matthew.flaschen@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>Bo Berglund wrote: >>> Next time you start up, log in as root and wait. >> >>You never need to log into the GUI as root. Just run the programs you >>need to as root. For instance, when you need to do updates, it will ask >>you for the root password. But everything else remains with user >>privileges. >> >>Matt Flaschen > >I actually first tried that, logging in as myself. But when I wanted >to edit grub.conf using the text editor it would not allow me and I >could not see any way of starting the text editor with root priviliges >either. > >So then I started a command window and inside that I used su to become >root. First mistake, the 'su' s/b 'su -' so you get the root environment too. Otherwise there are some things in roots $PATH that still aren't available to you. >Then I used nano to edit grub.conf. I did that after first >trying the text editor again (now with root in the command window) but >it still would not allow me to edit grub.conf. Seems like the su in >the command window is only valid inside the command window itself. That is correct and intended, only that instance of su has root privileges. >Is there a way to start the text editor as root???? > >But using nano was a disaster, because after adding the extra >parameters somehow nano split the kernel command line into two >separate lines 2nd mistake. I wasn't aware as I've never used it, not even installed here, that nano had grown a maximum line length autowrap function. If you insist on using nano, turn that off. Or better yet (IMO) install vim and everything it will pull in. vim (vi improved) is a true WYSIWYG editor, and will never bite you by doing that. It only has 3 keys, the 'a'ppend, the 'i'nsert keys will put you into the active edit mode, and the esc key to get back out of the active edit, where everything you type in the active mode shows onscreen and goes into the file. There are others of course, but at the end, when the file is displayed the way you want it, then ESC:wq will take you out of the active entry mode, the :w writes the file, and the q on the same line quits the editor. >and when I subsequently restarted I got back to the >garbled initial screens and finally to a situation where I could not >move the mouse anymore. So I had to *reset* the machine and use >command line parameters from the boot screen once more to get back in. > >Then I logged on as root and could use text editor to modify >grub.conf. That is when I saw that the previous edit with nano had >actually managed to create two lines out of the single kernel line! What 'text editor' was this, linux has more editing utilities that meet this very broad description than you can fit, single spaced, on a page. Many of which are subtly broken for a newbie. For email, you expect autowrap by default, for system files its a PITA as you found. Yet both are called text editors. >So I think it is safer to log on as root the first time so that the >final setup chores can all be accomplished without permission >problems. > >By the way: >When I had to reset the machine to get control back I probably did so >at a not so good time, because on each boot now the loader complains >about disk corruption. It flashes by so fast that I can't say exactly >what it says, but definitely about the disk. >Is there a linux utility like the Windows chkdsk that can be used to >repair the disk if it is corrupted? If so, how is it used? What filesystem is on the disk its complaining about? In recent (the last year or so) history, I have powered down or did a hardware reset quite a few times to an all ext3 system without ANY filesystem corruption. In any event, most filesystem do have an fsck function, but it MUST be run on an unmounted partition. Most will do this every x reboots, however I believe that tune2fs (for ext2/3 systems) can force an fsck so it will be done before the mount during the next reboot, see the manpage. You'll probably have to be root to set that however. HTH. >Bo Berglund -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Optimization hinders evolution.
