Tom H wrote: > Bob Proulx wrote: > > But all released versions of Debian always install both a root account > > and a normal user account. > > ... > > If you install Debian Stable Squeeze you will be asked for a root > > account and then a normal user account. Debian doesn't install sudo > > by default. > > True by default but if you set an empty root password using the > regular install or skip the creation of a root account using the > expert install, sudo's set up. What? Yes! You are right. And I was most definitely wrong about things. I owe Stephen Allen an apology. I have been blowing past the root account setup so many times that I haven't actually been reading it. And mostly I preseed it away anyway so I don't even see it. But I have seen it often enough that I should have caught up to the changes. I removed all preseeding and very carefully walked through the installation and yes it does say that if no root password is set up that it configures sudo. I did that, no root password, and yes it automatically installs sudo and configures it for the user. I started Synaptic from the GUI menu system and it spawned a slightly different dialog from the normal root, I could tell it was different, and asked for the user password for the gksudo. Typed in the user password and Synaptic was launched okay. Like Kyle, "I learned something today." Now the question is how is this case configured for Synaptic? In this case the user is not installed in /etc/sudoers. But it does add the user to the 'sudo' group. And in the default /etc/sudoers file it includes this line: # Allow members of group sudo to execute any command %sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL So that explains how users are set up to use sudo in that installation case. However I haven't looked to see what configures Synaptic to use one method or the other for authorizing the user. I will research that and report what I learn. It would be good to know about it. But no time at the moment. Maybe not until next Monday since I will be away from the keyboard all weekend. Bob
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