How do I login as Root in Terminal Restart/Reboot my System

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I added a whole slew of apps to my favorites and lost the ‘Shutdown’ option…every time I try to shutdown in the Terminal I am told I must be logged in as Root to do so…I can’t figure out how to do this

I’m a newbie to Linux but a CNE 5 -haven’t used it 10 years- an MCP and A+ certified

I’ve searched local help and SuSe’s site and I can’t find anything

I’ve only spent a couple of hrs on this and have had SuSe 11.2 installed since last Sunday

Any help would be greatly appreciated

#2

To execute a command as root, precede it with sudo “super user do”. Thus shutdown is

sudo /sbin/shutdown -h now

To reboot instead of halt, use -r.

#3

Well that worked out like a charm

Thank you

I have to say I’m enjoying my Linux experience…I’ve been using google, the forums, youtube and the like and in just one week have learned a great deal about Linux

#4

What lwfinger said. Also, if you want to do a bit of work as root in a terminal, you can use “su” (“superuser”):


su -

The “-” after “su” isn’t strictly required under Suse, but other Linux distros might not set up the environment if you don’t use it, so I do it out of habit.

#5

Oh thank you so much for this information!

It makes ALL the difference!

NOW…I can drive this car

May you live to be a thousand

#6

On Thu January 28 2010 09:16 pm, smpoole7 wrote:

>
> What lwfinger said. Also, if you want to do a bit of work as root in a
> terminal, you can use “su” (“superuser”):
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> su -
>
> --------------------
>
>
> The “-” after “su” isn’t strictly required under Suse, but other Linux
> distros might not set up the environment if you don’t use it, so I do it
> out of habit.
>
>
Actually “su” stands for “substitute user”. It is possible to use su or sudo
to execute a command(s) as any valid user. See: man su or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_(Unix)

P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green

#7

And please read this: SDB:Login as root - openSUSE

#8

The - is strongly recomended. As a security measurement (and for your own convenience) you should use root’s environment and not that of the user. The user’s environment could contain pitfalls.

#9

Absolutely correct. My bad. In fact, when I was running Zimbra, I routine had to “su zimbra” to start and stop services.

@hcw: The - is strongly recomended. As a security measurement (and for your own convenience) you should use root’s environment and not that of the user. The user’s environment could contain pitfalls.

I said that in another thread and got scolded, as I recall. Suse does switch you to root’s environment, or so I was told. But I agree with you: it’s free, it’s easy, and it’s cross-distro, so Stephen uses “su -” and anyone who doesn’t like it is NOT invited to my birthday party, so there.

:slight_smile:

#10

Look at this:

henk@boven:~> export TTT=hahaha
henk@boven:~> echo $TTT
hahaha
henk@boven:~> su
Wachtwoord:
boven:/home/henk # echo $TTT
hahaha
boven:/home/henk # exit
exit
henk@boven:~> su -
Wachtwoord:
boven:~ # echo $TTT

boven:~ #  exit
logout
henk@boven:~> echo $TTT
hahaha
henk@boven:~>

This is on openSUSE 10.3. It shows that the users environment is deleted when we use the -.

The *man *page does not provide too much details, but refers to the *info *pages. From there:

-' -l’
--login' Make the shell a login shell. This means the following. Unset all environment variables except TERM’, HOME', and SHELL’ (which
are set as described above), and USER' and LOGNAME’ (which are
set, even for the super-user, as described above), and set PATH' to a compiled-in default value. Change to USER's home directory. Prepend -’ to the shell’s name, intended to make it read its
login startup file(s).

I do not think openSUSE broke the implementation of su. I do not see any prove of it and the above example about the environment variable *TTT *shows otherwise.

In any case, I will continue with my ceterum censeo: use su - !!!

And about my birthday party, it is within a month. Thus I have decide very quickly who I invite. Hope you are mong them. :slight_smile:
But first: off for a week of skiing!

#11

Quite, old boy, quite. :slight_smile:

And about my birthday party, it is within a month. Thus I have decide very quickly who I invite. Hope you are mong them. :slight_smile:
But first: off for a week of skiing!

Well, happy birthday in advance! I just celebrated my 54th (on Jan 25th). We’re not getting older, we’re getting better. :slight_smile:

#12

May i wish you many happy returns of the day even if I am a bit late?

I will be 65 within two weeks. Still getting better and better.:slight_smile: And thanks for the wellwishes.

#13

Gentlemen,
Pleasure to meet you all…I’m 39 btw and writing from Philly

Does anyone know how to lock the console? In Windows you just do a ‘Win’ + ‘L’ and the system is locked while you run off and pee…secure in the knowledge that a co-worker is not reading your email

Speaking of shortcut keys…are there any for Linux?

#14

‘exit’ will shut down the current session in a terminal. if you are running a GUI, KDE now has a little blue icon at the bottom right. this will bring up the screen saver and lock the session. I’m not aware of any hot keys in pure terminal mode. In a GUI you can easily define a key to log out

#15

Thank you for your reply

I’m wondering how to lock the gui…not exit the x-terminal

If you are in front of a Windows machine and you hold down the ‘Windows’ key…and then hit the ‘L’ key…the system will lock

Which means its secure…you have to login in to do anything…and all your processes continue to run

Locking the OS…is a great way to clean your keyboard btw

Anyhow…how does one do this in Linux?

#16

Sorry…I forgot to add that I’m using GNOME not KDE

#17

Why is it when I type ‘SUDO’ I get directions on the command, switches and syntax…and when I type SU…I am immediately prompted to login as ‘Super/Substitute User’?

SU seems to be the key…as far as concerns loging in as the Root

#18

Hi,

SU and sudo aren’t the same.

sudo: gives you some extra privaliges
SU: logs you in as root user (you can do anything)

–
Regards,
Barry Nichols

#19

No, they are not the same but that’s not the essential difference. You can also use sudo to give you a superuser session, just do sudo bash or sudo su.

The first difference is that sudo expects a command to be specified on the command line itself, whereas su starts an interactive shell by default. Having said that, you can also get su to run a single command, by using the -c option.

The second difference is that sudo consults /etc/sudoers to see if the combination of command, user and host gets special treatment. For instance, some commands may require a password and some not. su has no such subtlety, you either get to run as the substitute user or not depending on whether you pass the uid check and authentication check.

#20

kaneandrew wrote:
> Sorry…I forgot to add that I’m using GNOME not KDE

i’ve not used gnome in a while but, try:
-right click desktop
-pick “Lock Session”
-when you come back it will expect your password

it is about as secure as your password…unless ‘they’ wanna shutdown
and boot from a live CD, mount your drives and read at will (unless
you encrypted them, and then a few thousand years to crack (if you use
a long enough hash))…

knowing you said you could spell Novell, etc i think you probably
might be able to use one of these hints to solve some of your
mysteries (from a previous post of mine, see):

http://tinyurl.com/ybklh48

which does not mean you can’t still ask Qs…

–
palladium