Re: [SOLVED] Re: One-user system.
On Fri 06 May 2022 at 09:24:35 (-0700), peter@easthope.ca wrote:
> From: David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk>
> Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2022 11:08:28 -0600
> > I can't understand this.
I'm not sure why you quoted this after three months without any
indication of its referent. What I didn't understand was why you
had to have /root under /home, and indeed, when you later revealed
your partition layout, it looked even less necessary, because you
have /root on a different partition.
> In a freshly installed Debian, /etc/passwd sets the home directory for
> root at /root. Here /etc/passwd sets the home directory for root at
> /home/root. No problem observed.
I wouldn't expect one. There are a whole variety of home directories
specified in /etc/passwd.
> > You may hit snags. Some programs might refuse to run, or do
> > strange things because they're written to distinguish between
> > root and an ordinary user.
> >
> > But hey, it could be quite exciting, like carrying a cocked
> > revolver tucked into your waistband. One casual typo, one
> > misplaced space, and you can blow away a whole disk.
>
> Working routinely for about 93 days and I no longer bother to keep
> fingers crossed. If reinstallation becomes necessary, tough luck.
> Just another chore.
I don't think the number of days has that much influence on whether
you'll get bitten, as the probability distribution is quite likely
to be memoryless. Unless, of course, you're noticing some of your
near-misses, and are becoming adept at avoiding or working around them.
> What I'm doing is similar to using DOS years ago; although DOS
> predates experience of most people reading now. If login is used
> properly, root shouldn't be more vulnerable than any other account.
That's right, and any old rogue TSR could crash the system, or any old
virus take it over. I ran DOS 3, 5 and 6.22 systems that were very
reliable, but only by restricting in the extreme what I ran on them.
But that doesn't inject any truth into your second statement, and
saying to use login "properly" just begs the question.
> You're welcome to probe my system. If you find a vulnerability, a
> post will help or amuse more than me.
No thanks, that just makes me an agent of reckless acts.
> > ... Puppy ...
>
> Incidentally, OpenBox is here with minimal graphics displayed.
> Most programs start from a terminal. Puppy is a nice system but
> the graphical interface is more than I want.
(I didn't express a view on Puppy itself, only two passing references
to others' writing about it. My view on the second was "so what".)
> > ISTR earlier posts where you've run up against permission problems,
> > but IMHO just running as perpetual root is not a sensible answer.
>
> For years my data was on an SD card reformatted to ext3. When
> switching to a new SD about a month ago, I decided to leave the
> factory installed FAT file system. No problems. The FAT file system
> lacks permissions as in ext.
>
> Motivation to leave FAT: authorities claim the factory format is
> optimized.
Did you leave out "not"? From which half of the sentence?
Unless you're running your system from a FAT filesystem, I'm not
sure I see a connection between this and solving your earlier
permissions problems (which I admit I barely recollect).
Cheers,
David.
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