Help With Kubuntu

[sabashuali]

I will cut a VERY long story short -
I am using Kubuntu on my laptop and all is well but two things annoy me mucho -

1. Sudo - so I know how to enable root but, which I did not find much written about, how do I get the system to ask for the root password rather then my own (as sudo does)?
2. Adding a pannel - I want to add a top pannel so I can park my favourite apps. I can create the extra pannel and I can park stuff but I cannot seem to find a way to make it slightly "thinner".... any ideas?

Thanks for your help....
:cool:

 

[Fred]

I will cut a VERY long story short -
I am using Kubuntu on my laptop and all is well but two things annoy me mucho -

1. Sudo - so I know how to enable root but, which I did not find much written about, how do I get the system to ask for the root password rather then my own (as sudo does)?
2. Adding a pannel - I want to add a top pannel so I can park my favourite apps. I can create the extra pannel and I can park stuff but I cannot seem to find a way to make it slightly "thinner".... any ideas?

Thanks for your help....
:cool:

Well, I'm not sure of the answer to your first problem. I had that same issue way back when and never found a way to resolve it... it bugged me quite a bit.

As for your second "thinner" panel... right click on the panel you want smaller and go to configure panel.
**At the top of this screen, it says "Settings for"... make sure you are selecting the correct panel.
At the bottom, you have an option titled "size" and you can choose from tiny, small, normal, large, or custom. On custom, you choose the amount of pixels.


**EDIT**
Here's some more info on removing sudo:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

Here's a thread where people seem to find a way to do what you're talking about with the root password instead of user password:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ubuntu-63/uninstall-sudo-452503/#post2281940

Perhaps AT can further help with this issue?

 

[Anti-Trend]

Re-enabling the root account and removing sudo/ALL rights from your own users is actually pretty simple. Unfortunately, unless you only use CLI-based tools, it will only break *ubuntu. In other words, utilities that need root, e.g. the updater, will ask for your password, regardless of whether or not you actually have the privileges to run it. It will not ask for the root password. This is one of my major complaints against it as a platform; same broken security model as OS X. :rolleyes: (Less broken than Windows, but you already knew that)

So, basically if you want a Debian-based system that has proper user-privilege separation, I'd recommend simply using the real Debian instead of trying to turn Ubuntu back into Debian. :) OTOH, if for some reason you still want to remove sudo from your own account in Ubuntu and re-enable root, you'll want to do the following:

1. Get a root shell:

   sudo su -

2. Edit /etc/sudoers with the 'visudo' command:

   visudo

   and comment out the entry for the admin group.

   #%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

   (or, you could simply remove your own user from the admin group instead):
   

   vim /etc/group

   ...and just delete your own username from after the entry for the admin group.
3. Then set a password for the root account:

   passwd root

 

[sabashuali]

**At the top of this screen, it says "Settings for"... make sure you are selecting the correct panel.

I am afraid I cannot do this. Even though I create a new panel, when it comes to changing settings I have no option to select which panel I want to change. WTF? :eek:

Fred - are you using Kubuntu or Debian?

Thanks AT for your suggestions... I have to say that *ubuntu was not my first choice and to be frank I do not enjoy using it much. However, it handles my wireless set-up (...here we go again....) out of the box flawlessly. Don't ask me how... I would not know. Here is the thing. I am the only user on this laptop so perhaps getting rid of sudo is not really that acute in my case?

I wish I knew...... :confused:

 

[Anti-Trend]

Here is the thing. I am the only user on this laptop so perhaps getting rid of sudo is not really that acute in my case?

That's pretty much what I'm saying. If you want to use Ubuntu at all, it's best to leave the sudoers thing as-is. Otherwise, all you have is essentially a broken Debian.

 

[sabashuali]

I think I might give Debian another go and see. As mentioned before, I do not find the *ubuntu experience very gratifying.... :dry:

I know my first choice for a desktop PC but for my laptop I had to resort to all sorts.... :doh:

Thanks Fred and AT...

 

[megamaced]

if you want to get ubuntu to ask for root password when using sudo, do this:

sudo nano /etc/sudoers

find the line that reads:

Defaults        env_reset

and change so that it reads:

Defaults        env_reset,rootpw

ADDITIONAL:

For a laugh, if you want a funny comment every time you enter an incorrect sudo password at the command line, add this line:

Defaults        env_reset,rootpw,insults

 

[Anti-Trend]

if you want to get ubuntu to ask for root password when using sudo, do this:

sudo nano /etc/sudoers

Hate to contradict a smart guy like 'maced, but never, ever edit sudoers directly on a working system. Syntax errors can render your system unusable! Instead, always use the visudo script, e.g.

sudo visudo

...visudo will detect and allow you to recover from syntax errors before replacing the production copy of sudoers with your edited copy. The visudo script should exist on pretty much every *nix system out there, so use it! ;)

 

[megamaced]

That's true.

I did use Visudo at one point, when Ubuntu had it call nano. But now they have it call Vim and I don't know how to use it!

I really should get around to learning Vim at some point... :D

 

[sabashuali]

Hi Guys

Again, thanks for all the responce...
Back with Lenny now and so far so good... we'll see for how long.
But if I ever have to resort to *ubuntu, I'll know what to do.....
cheers.

Oh, and he is a clever boy ain' he....? ;)

 

[Anti-Trend]

I did use Visudo at one point, when Ubuntu had it call nano. But now they have it call Vim and I don't know how to use it!

Well, it is still called visudo, but it uses nano as the editor instead of vim in Ubuntu. On pretty much any other distro, it'll be vi or vim.