ubuntu linux

zap

just installed unbuntu linix its really nice and i like it but, I takes ages to boot anyway I change this and there seems to be no way of logging in as root so I can changed the preferences of the horrible grub it installed

phreak

type sudo bash

SantaHoe

Yeah I hate that, Mandrake 10 was like that aswell... I somehow managed to get in by booting to failsafe mode, and logging in as root from bash or sh or whatever, then using startx... ended up completely buggering my install.
It's like they're protecting new users from themselves by making it difficult/confusing to login as root... yet you can get feck all setup in the OS without being root.
I think it'd be safer to just let people be root when they want to, so they don't funk up the OS trying to figure it out.
Does anyone else think it's arrogant of the distributers to think their OS is so automatic and user-friendly that nobody will ever need root to establish even basic functionality?

I assume there is a simple way of logging in as root that they're just not telling us about... I'm actually pretty curious about this one

tck

zap wrote:

just installed unbuntu linix its really nice and i like it but, I takes ages to boot anyway I change this and there seems to be no way of logging in as root so I can changed the preferences of the horrible grub it installed

sudo passwd root !

and you can also enable it at gnome login as well

Computer > System Configuration > Login Screen Setup > Security

zap

anyone any ideas on speeding up the boot?

NotMe

Just wondering why you need to log in as root. May be a stupid question but what can you do as root that you can't do in the root terminal?

zap

what password do i use for root? it never asked me to set one up. it's not the same as first user I set up. Also I just timed a boot it tooks 1 minute 47 seconds compared to xp which just booted in 15 seconds.

NotMe

I installed Ubuntu a few days ago. The first user account that you create during installation has the same password as root. So you just open a root terminal and enter that password.

As for the boot up time, yeah it is kinda slow. I just timed it and it took 60 seconds from grub to the welcome screen and then 30 seconds to fully load the desktop. XP took 30 seconds from grub to login screen and another 20 seconds to desktop.

*edit * actually I can't remember if the root password was the same as the first user account or if I set it afterwards
I might have typed 'sudo passwd root' and set the root password to be the same Try that anyway.

wes

NotMe wrote:

I installed Ubuntu a few days ago. The first user account that you create during installation has the same password as root. So you just open a root terminal and enter that password.

As for the boot up time, yeah it is kinda slow. I just timed it and it took 60 seconds from grub to the welcome screen and then 30 seconds to fully load the desktop. XP took 30 seconds from grub to login screen and another 20 seconds to desktop.

*edit * actually I can't remember if the root password was the same as the first user account or if I set it afterwards
I might have typed 'sudo passwd root' and set the root password to be the same Try that anyway.

It is the same on mine by default.

Ste-

When it's syncing with the clock through the net press ctrl+c that will cancel it, not really needed.
And be sure to take out the hotplugging errors, not sure if they take up time or not.
Is it a warty install ?

http://ubuntuguide.org/
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/

Are good sources of information.

tck

hoary (preview version) is quite fast at booting

it's available now http://releases.ubuntu.com/hoary/

ishnid

tck wrote:

hoary (preview version) is quite fast at booting

it's available now http://releases.ubuntu.com/hoary/

Full release due first week in April IIRC.

As for arrogance being a reason for initially disabling root login, I wouln't agree. Forcing users to use sudo instead is just an alternative security model that discourages people lazily staying logged in as root. Anyone with above-basic knowledge of shell commands will be able to re-enable it easily enough.

PixelPixie

tck wrote:

hoary (preview version) is quite fast at booting

it's available now http://releases.ubuntu.com/hoary/

The April DVD edn of Linux Magazine has the full "Hoary Hedgehog" devel edn on it.