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Bug#977975: marked as done (general: Root does not aknoledge root password)

Your message dated Wed, 23 Dec 2020 20:48:41 +0100
with message-id <8735zwi9ra.fsf@hands.com>
and subject line Re: Bug#977975: general: Root does not aknoledge root password
has caused the Debian Bug report #977975,
regarding general: Root does not aknoledge root password
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact owner@bugs.debian.org
immediately.)


-- 
977975: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=977975
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner@bugs.debian.org with problems
--- Begin Message --- 
Package: general
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***

   * What led up to the situation?

I made several netinstalls of Debian Buster 10.7, via Netinst-cd-images. Used
eather Graphic or non-graphic, mostly expert install as I have used to make
partitions myself. Added to first Debian base item only Mate desktop and System
(tools) (the last item). About 3-4 times I chose in install also activate the
"Root login", gave the same password to Root as to my ordinary account: as the
only user I used 1-digit password, the same digit as ordinary Username login.
My internet connection did not fail all the time (lan, 10/10 MBit/s). I used to
make separate Boot, Root, Home partitions; Grub on MBR of GPT table, although
my PC is EFI-capable (Fujitsu Esprimo d756; Intel 6(5)00; 256 ssd Hynix (all
used ones before me for 3-4 years), no signs ever of harware deficiencies.
(I am writing the Report on MX Linux install, not Debian.)


   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?

After install and reboot I tried to gain root rights: su. Then the Terminal
told the password was not right one, and that this incidence would be reported.
Also tried to login as Root. Again was always told that the password was not
right (one digit!). Yet about in 1(2) install all about the logins were working
excellently! Yet then I had missed some other minor things, and did new
install, hoping that I eventually had caught the point of my own mistake...
 Installing Debian in case I did not determed Root-login, then, as if I
remember right (I made less such installs), at one install root privileges
worked faultlessly, at other not 100%. Also tried both 32-bit and 64-bit
installer; always Mate desktop adding just minimal selection.

   * What was the outcome of this action?

As I wanted to find out Linux distro allowing minimal graphic desktop install
(less unused programs (bloatedness)), I tried Debian install really a lot of
times, thinking that the cause has to be my unfamiliarity with Debian
installer. At most times I did clean install, also reformatted the Home-
partition. Yet I had to abandon each new install because I could not use the
Terminal. (I am not sure, but probably the Synaptic accepted my password.)

   * What outcome did you expect instead?

I expected my passwords working well. It is not so easy to get the su or sudo
working in Debian as I had used in Linux Mint -- but this is another question,
the question of convenience for newcomers. There was another thing also: the
wording (explaining) of the activating of Root login was quite different in
Graphic login and/or Graphic expert login and/or Non-graphic expert login. It
was quite hard for me get an idea what really I had chosen.
Nevertheless mostly I admire the detailness of Debian tutorial pages! Although,
hard to catch sometimes for simple mortals as I...


*** ***



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 10.6
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-12-686-pae (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message --- 
Hi Juhan,

Juhan <juhanibugs@online.ee> writes:
...
> After install and reboot I tried to gain root rights: su. Then the Terminal
> told the password was not right one, and that this incidence would be reported.

If it told you that the incident would be reported, then I believe you
must have been using 'sudo' not 'su'.

If you assigned a password to root, then the non-root user you created
for yourself will not have been added to the 'sudo' group, so you will
not be able to use 'sudo' to become root.

However, if during the occasion when you say it worked you happened not
to have given root a password, then you user would instead have been
added to the 'sudo' group, and at that point sudo would have worked for
you. This seems likely to be the reason for the change in behavior you
describe.

This behavior regarding when the first user gets added to the sudo
group can be a bit surprising I'm afraid, but it is mentioned in the
help text in the installer when you are being prompted for the root
password.

It arises from the fact that some people wish to have no password
assigned to root, and a user that can use sudo, while others want the
opposite. Therefore, making the sudo group membership depend on the
state of root's password is how we provide both options at install time.

BTW I am closing this bug because bugs against 'general' have a tendency
to be ignored until they become irrelevant, and then be closed some time
later -- I think it's less misleading to close it immediately.

However, if you think that I'm wrong about what's going on, please don't
be discouraged, but please do try to ask for help via our support
channels (see: https://www.debian.org/support ) when you have the system
in front of you, so that you can try out suggestions you are given.

HTH

Cheers, Phil.
-- 
|)|  Philip Hands  [+44 (0)20 8530 9560]  HANDS.COM Ltd.
|-|  http://www.hands.com/    http://ftp.uk.debian.org/
|(|  Hugo-Klemm-Strasse 34,   21075 Hamburg,    GERMANY

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