Hey
Whenever I’m asked (as a KDE4 user) to type in my root password - ie for starting YaST - as I type it three, not one, dot appears per character in the password. And then nothing happens as I click OK or hit return. No access, no error message.
There is one exception: when the auto update wants to install updates only one dot appears per character in the password, and the password works fine.
How do I fix this, please?
did this just start, or has it been going on for ever since you
installed…which version?
–
palladium
It’s been like this for very long. Getting around by konsole>su>cross fingers or logging in as root. Sucks.
Pretty sure it has to do with the “thee dots” settings which I think I must have activated while messing around, then only noticed the buggy behaviour much later. Looked for where to change this setting everywhere but somehow missing it!
My sig is up to date - openSUSE 11.2, KDE 4.3.5, 64 bit.
AFAICS you have been messing with authentication settings as root. Is that where things went wrong?
bennohansen wrote:
> It’s been like this for very long. Getting around by konsole>su>cross
> fingers or logging in as root. Sucks.
well, i do not know where that “three dot” setting is either…
OH, google is grand…a search of the forums here for “three dots” led
to http://forums.opensuse.org/2126835-post23.html
see if you can follow his:
Go to Menu -> Configure Desktop -> General Tab -> About Me. At the
bottom, there's options for Password Prompts. Select "Shot one bullet
for each letter".
maybe that will fix your problem…if not come back…oh, since you
mentioned logging in as root, i also want to say:
you should never log into KDE/Gnome/XFCE or any other *nix-like
graphical user interface desktop environment as root…
doing so 1) opens you up to several different security problems, 2)
too many too easy ways to damage your system no matter how careful
your actions (example: just browsing in your home directory as root
can lock you out later as yourself due to permissions damage), 3) and,
anyway logging into KDE/etc as root is never required to do any and
all administrative duties…
so, always log in as yourself, and “become root” by using a root
powered application (like YaST, File Manager Superuser Mode) or using
“su -”, sudo, kdesu, gnomesu in a terminal to launch whatever tool is
needed…read more on all that here:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Login_as_root
http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdebase-runtime/userguide/root.html
http://tinyurl.com/6ry6yd
http://tinyurl.com/ydbwssh
and, this is just to test if you read all the way to the bottom:
what is the “M.Sc” following your name?
–
palladium
(example: just browsing in your home directory as root
can lock you out later as yourself due to permissions damage)
While I support the warnings referring to root-GUI-logins very much, this is just plain wrong - moving through directories or even opening files while being root will never change permissions of anything. It would, for example, if you’d open a textfile in /home, edit it and then save it, but the mere presence of root does not.
I still affirm palladiums references: it is a) never necessary to log in as root, b) potentially dangerous since every small mistake might harm the whole system (this, however, is always the case when working as root) and c) it’s not very convenient compared to the ways of becoming root withing a regular session.
Amazing! I have tried googling but didn’t find that setting… in About Me 
It instantly fixed the problem! Now I can start YaST… and use something as simple as FTP - that’s quite a detail huh!?
I’m generally reluctant to use the system as root but aren’t you a bit paranoid, palladium? You know one of the programmers at a former place I worked was caught letting his daughter play tux logged in as root on the server! 
PS: the MSc (which I usually do not include in signatures, must have been feeling some need to boast a bit) is for horticulture.
…] but aren’t you a bit paranoid, palladium?
He is not. A secure system is not only the effect of good configuration, but also sensible behaviour. To allow “small and rare exceptions” is simply bad behaviour (concerning the security of a system) and not necessary. As I said: one mistake could harm the entire system, and experience shows that when someone logs in as root he often does more than just the needed administrative tasks. I think one should be as consistent as possible when dealing with such issues.
bennohansen wrote:
> Amazing! I have tried googling but didn’t find that setting… in
> -About Me-
ah! see, you need to work on your Google-Fu, i used the “site
specifier” to whittle down where i was looking, here is the search
string i used, try it…and remember how to use the site specifier, it
is wonderful:
site:forums.opensuse.org “three dots”
> You know one of the programmers at a former place I worked was
> caught letting his daughter play tux logged in as root on the
> server!
hmmm, if i were the IT Chief at that place that ‘programmer’ would
have been looking for a job, at Fakta…
> PS: the MSc (which I usually do not include in signatures, must
> have been feeling some need to boast a bit) is for horticulture.
i’ve sent you a private message-PM…mange tak
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palladium