Re: Root Password No Longer Works in KDE
Kamaraju Kusumanchi wrote:
Scarletdown wrote:
I have tried everything I could think of at the moment, short of doing
the dreaded OS reinstall (apt-get --reinstall install x-window-system
kde and apt-get --reinstall install kde did not fix it either.) I
would really prefer to not have to reinstall, since it took me forever
the first time around to get the nVidia video drivers configured
right, and I can't remember whether or not I took down notes on how I
did it.
So, if anyone here can make sense of my rather rambling description of
this root password problem, please give some advice on how to get
things back to normal. Thanks.
Just a random thought. Did you try changing LDAP (server/client)
configuration? May be the difference between /etc/pam.d/su and
/etc/pam.d/ssh would give you an idea.
I checked them out and discovered I had no idea whatsoever about what I
should be looking for... If it helps t-shooting this any, here's the
contents of those files...
#
# The PAM configuration file for the Shadow `su' service
#
# Uncomment this to force users to be a member of group root
# before they can use `su'. You can also add "group=foo" to
# to the end of this line if you want to use a group other
# than the default "root".
# (Replaces the `SU_WHEEL_ONLY' option from login.defs)
# auth required pam_wheel.so
# Uncomment this if you want wheel members to be able to
# su without a password.
# auth sufficient pam_wheel.so trust
# Uncomment this if you want members of a specific group to not
# be allowed to use su at all.
# auth required pam_wheel.so deny group=nosu
# This allows root to su without passwords (normal operation)
auth sufficient pam_rootok.so
# Uncomment and edit /etc/security/time.conf if you need to set
# time restrainst on su usage.
# (Replaces the `PORTTIME_CHECKS_ENAB' option from login.defs
# as well as /etc/porttime)
# account requisite pam_time.so
# The standard Unix authentication modules, used with
# NIS (man nsswitch) as well as normal /etc/passwd and
# /etc/shadow entries.
@include common-auth
@include common-account
@include common-session
# Sets up user limits, please uncomment and read /etc/security/limits.conf
# to enable this functionality.
# (Replaces the use of /etc/limits in old login)
# session required pam_limits.so
# PAM configuration for the Secure Shell service
# Disallow non-root logins when /etc/nologin exists.
auth required pam_nologin.so
# Read environment variables from /etc/environment and
# /etc/security/pam_env.conf.
auth required pam_env.so # [1]
# Standard Un*x authentication.
@include common-auth
# Standard Un*x authorization.
@include common-account
# Standard Un*x session setup and teardown.
@include common-session
# Print the message of the day upon successful login.
session optional pam_motd.so # [1]
# Print the status of the user's mailbox upon successful login.
session optional pam_mail.so standard noenv # [1]
# Set up user limits from /etc/security/limits.conf.
session required pam_limits.so
# Standard Un*x password updating.
@include common-password
Additionally, after a little more tinkering, I managed to get gdm set up
so I could once again log into the KDE desktop. Just for more
troubleshooting purposes, I again tried a root login, and this time was
given the opportunity to see the error log before being dumped back to
the login screen. Here is what the error log showed...
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: Registering your session with wtmp and utmp
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: running: /usr/bin/X11/sessreg -a -w
/var/log/wtmp -u /var/run/utmp -x "/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xservers" -h "" -l
":0" "root"
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
startkde: Starting up...
The KDE libraries are not designed to run with suid privileges.
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
The KDE libraries are not designed to run with suid privileges.
kdeinit: Communication error with launcher. Exiting!
Warning: connect() failed: : Connection refused
The KDE libraries are not designed to run with suid privileges.
startkde: Shutting down...
Warning: connect() failed: : Connection refused
Error: Can't contact kdeinit!
startkde: Running shutdown scripts...
startkde: Done.
I'm suspecting that the bit about the KDE libraries not running with
suid privileges has something to do with my inability to use su, sudo,
or anything else requiring the root password while logged in as a
non-root user. So then, what needs to be changed so that I can perform
root-level functions again?
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