I recently did an upgrade install to 42.3. This was not without hitches, as mentioned in my thread in “soapbox”… However, now up and running and all is more or less well…
One baffling new development in particular is bugging me!
In konsole, as my user ‘sp’, all is well, new install has even inherited my prompt…
sp 16:58:~>
BUT! When I become root, I get this…
PartedMagic:~ #
!!!
What the Crimmuns???
Now I used a USB stick which had previously had a live PartedMagic OS on it. But I ‘prepared’ the stick using dd to copy the 42.3 iso, which surely should have obliterated all traces?
I also, during my troubles, IIRC booted to PartedMagic using another stick. But I am sure that I did not do anything whilst there…
Can anyone explain please? Does this raise any possible troubles? And how do I change this to what it should be…
So, what happens if you pull the USB stick out of your machine before you elevate to root?
And, exactly what command or method are you using to elevate to root?
Don’t know enough about PartedMagic,
But first…
Simply copying <some> disk blocks won’t guarantee whatever existed before is gone (this might be a good lesson).
To obliterate what was there before, you need to “zero” the device.
This can be accomplished by
Using dd, write zeros to the <entire> disk before re-using.
Less complete, but oftentimes sufficient is to <change the partitions> before re-using. Of course, if you’re using the entire “disk” always, you’re re-using the disk geometry and old data can magically re-appear.
Re-formatting the <entire> partition(s) can also be sufficient.
The only sure way is the first option.
On solid state memory (including USB drives) you have a slightly different issue as well, memory isn’t written to magnetic surfaces, the data is written to “traps”(aka cells) which must undergo an extra “erase” step before the trap can be re-used for writing. Unless and until that trap is erased, the data <shouldn’t> be accessible but who knows for sure? The only way to be sure is to execute the command to clear all the traps on the device (Research your device’s manufacturer to determine the command). Or, you can execute the trim/discard command in the new system before using the contents of the USB stick.
This is just to check that the uid is 0, and that the home directory is “/home”.
If everything is as it should be, then look at “.profile” and at files with name starting “.bash” in the root home directory. Those could have changed the root prompt.
Hmm, on second thoughts – if I login at the terminal as root, the prompt that I see is of the form:
hostname:~ #
So maybe your system has a hostname of “PartedMagic”.
Maybe you ran the PartedMagic CD, and somehow your router picked up that the hostname is “PartedMagic”. And maybe your system then got its hostname from your router (via DHCP).
Reason you only saw it as root is that apparently sometime in the past you changed your personal prompt which is in your home. While roots settings are in /root and got changed with the upgrade maybe.
I do not think anything (in .prifile or .bashrc) is changed in the home directory of root (/root), the hostname itself was changed (see post #11 and #12). And the default prompt shows the hostname.
As far as I know, it resides on the PartedMagic CD.
My guess is that your system was, at some time, boot with that CD (or its USB version). And it told your router that’s its hostname is “PartedMagic”. And now that router is telling your system what its hostname is.
And the “Set Hostname via DHCP” to “no” is greyed out and not changeable in YAST2.
You are probably using NetworkManager. It is not grayed out here (using “wicked”).
I’m not sure, but I think you can override that in “/etc/dhclient.conf”.