Hi, I’m new here, I started with Linux using Ubuntu, but the latest release had problems with my nvidia graphics card, so I moved to Sabayon, which I thought was brilliant but kept breaking itself, so now I’m here with Suse.
Somehow my user groups seem to have messed up. I lost the ability to open applications that required root privileges. I logged in as root and added my default user to ‘root’ group.
Could someone let me know what other groups are added as standard on a fresh install so I can get back to where I was?
I’ve just noticed I had no sound, so I’ve added the audio group, I’m sure there are many more that need adding, I’m only a member of audio, dialout, video and root at the moment.
Please could someone let me know what groups I should add and possibly explain why they were removed. All I’ve tried to do on Suse so far is update it following my install. That failed and my user was broken. Not a great start but willing to continue trying it.
Would be very grateful if someone could just provide me with a list of default groups. Thanks.
This is VERY BAD you never use the system as root.
You only need to be a member of the group **users **to use the system.
Only use root privileges when absolutely necessary
Unlike Ubuntu, openSUSE uses the traditional split between root and user. User should not be part of the root group; the others you list are correct.
You can run an application that requires root privileges from user by logging on temporarily as root either through a GUI login or by using su – or sudo in a console.
Assuming you are trying to access files created under Ubuntu or Sabayon, a difficulty you may be encountering is that Ubuntu and openSUSE use different user numbers which may be confusing openSUSE applications.
Yes, I know your not meant to do it unless absolutely necessary, I thought it was the same with Ubuntu.
The good news is that at the moment, I have nothing on this partition and so nothing to lose, if it breaks I’ll just run a fresh install.
I had to sign in as root in this instance because suse wouldn’t open any of the applications which I required to amend my user privilages. Without signing in as root I couldn’t access any system applications i.e Yast, User and group management etc.
The only thing that could have done this was the failed update because i’ve not used this installation of Suse for anything else yet. I’ve been using linux for two years now and know the basics, but am not entirely sure about which groups which users need yet and can’t seem to find any information on the subject.
Thanks for the tips, I’ll uncheck root and see if I can access Yast. It wouldn’t let me until I joined the group though.
The division is imho fairly simple, and driven by a philosophy that any change that can affect the entire system (and not just a user) should require root permissions to change. So accessing YaST should require root permissions as one can affect the entire system with YaST.
Imagine yourself a “hacker” who wishes to do damage to a system, and all you have done thus far is hacked the regular user account. You are restricted in the damage you can do to the entire system, without root permissions. Anything attempts to change a configuration file that affects the entire system will (and should) fail. Only with root permissions can such damage be done.
Another example, consider the rpm command. If you wish to see what rpms are installed, you can run the rpm command as a regular user as you do not change anything. BUT if you wish to change something with the rpm command, THEN you will need root permissions. For example:
rpm -qa --last
will list all installed rpms. That can be run as a regular user.
But to install an application, one needs
su -c ‘rpm -Uvh application-file-name.rpm’
where in my example one first types “su” (no quotes) to switch users (defaults to root if not specified) and “-c” (no quotes) to specify that root permissions are to be used only for the following command.
Ok, so Suse uses ‘su’ in the same way as I had to under gentoo when installing packages using the emerge facility via the terminal. Whilst ubuntus equivalent is ‘sudo’.
The reason I couldn’t use it in this instance was because I’m afraid I don’t know how to change users and groups from the terminal and the only way I know how to have root privileges under the gnome gui is to login as root. Or am I wrong about that (highly likely).
I’ve still not got sound by the way, despite adding the audio group and then restarting the machine.
I’m thinking a fresh install might be the best idea, everything worked perfectly for the first 5 minutes until the update failed and I lost all functionality. This time I won’t use the updater in the bottom right corner. Instead I’ll go straight to Yasts internet updater.
Are updates slightly dodgy with Suse or was I just unlucky?
Will be back with a fresh install in about 30 mins. Thanks for the help, this seems to be a very good forum so far. I guess that’s the advantage of using the larger linux distributions. The Sabayon forum was like a ghost ship!
I’m also struggling with the gnome slam theme but no doubt that will come with time. I’m just so used to the old school style.
As long as your PC is not too exotic, there is likely some members on our forum who can help you with your sound. One approach is to take it out back and apply a pick axe to it. (for brief exhilarating sound). … OK … apologies, poor humour on my part. You could try work your way through the opensuse audio troubleshooting guide: SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE
If that doesn’t work, post here and I’ll give a command to download and run a diagnostic script and some rpm commands to get more info on your system (such that a good recommendation can be made).
Well, thats typically not the Linux way, but with openSUSE-11.0, they made the installation so darn fast, it is starting to become a consideration. :rolleyes:
One thing I recommend is be VERY careful with the software package manager repositories you add. I always recommend ONLY 4, and no others, None. Specifically OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Packman. Others can be added only on a brief adhoc basis, once you understand the risks of breaking one’s configuration/system. Guidance for adding repositories is here: Repositories/11.0 - openSUSE-Community
… again, I recommend ONLY OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Packman.
Ah, thanks. I’ve done a fresh install already and sound etc are working as they were. You’re right about them making it so fast.
What you say about adding too many repositries is exactly what I did… I added all but around 4 >:)
One thing I’m concerned with at the moment is that although I just did a full reinstall, my bookmarks etc are still in firefox. I hope this doesn’t mean all those repositries are still active.
According to Yast, my only enabled repositries currently are:
Updates for 11.0
OpenSUSE-DVD 11.0
OpenSUSE-11.0Non-Oss
OpenSUSE-11.0-Oss
Debug is also listed but not enabled, so by the looks of it all the others are gone, which is good news. Thanks for the tips. I’ll enable Packman and I’m guessing the DVD one won’t cause problems so I will leave that unless I hear otherwise.
Normally I’d try the linux way to fix the problems, because once I’ve customised my system it will take too long to get back. However I couldn’t see the point when I’d broken it before I’d managed to install a program in this instance :shame:
Your bookmarks are kept in your /home/username/.mozilla directory, which will be kept during a re-install if you did not reformat that partition. However your repository list for your package manager are typically not kept under /home, and hence they will be new.
If you have a poor internet connection, then keeping the DVD one makes sence. If you have a reliable high speed, then you may wish to remove it. The “pain” involved with keeping the dvd (as a repos) means your PC will continually ask you to insert the installation DVD for many software installs (as opposed to download the apps from the internet). I can’t be bothered digging out my install DVD all the time, so I disabled the DVD repos.
… OK … apologies, poor humour on my part. You could try work your way through the opensuse audio troubleshooting guide: