De-mickeymousing Linpus

Hi,

Anyone knows how to reverse the de-standardization of an OS sold as Linux? If I buy Linux I expect a login window and the possibility to login as 'root' or 'user' or any other user I may set up as root. I can't use this thing. It compels me to work all the time with root privileges in order to escape an imposed identity with an imposed environment. Consistently working with root privileges exposes the system to handling errors. It's perverse to assign a single-user identity and let that user give himself root privileges. It places the user above the root. And it all but eliminates Linux' superior immunity against viruses. If a user can assume root privileges a virus can too.
I suspect that I am not the only one to feel this way, nor the first one to raise the issue. I also suspect that the restoration of standard Linux may be a relatively simple matter of changing start-up scripts. I found an interesting one named 'startxfce4'. It is eighty lines long and only a dozen lines are not commented out. I am only to a degree familiar with the scripting language. So, I cannot analyze its implications in great detail. Would anyone help with the analysis and also with the identification of other scripts involved int the automated start-up? Or can anyone direct me possibly to a respective discussion that has already taken place?

Frederic

 

i've never played with linpus, so i don't know how it's set up compared to other 'typical' linux distros. have you checked to see if linpus uses /etc/inittab to set the runlevel?

 

Solman,

Thanks for the tip. 'inittab' does look interesting. To find out wherther or not it is called at start-up is a matter of tracing the start-up sequence. 'ps -AF x' doesn't show it, but then it may not be a process, or 'ps -AF x' doesn't show expired processes. The first porgramm called is '/sbin/init' (ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, stripped). init spawns two processes. One initializes the environment, the other sets up the user when the former is well into it. The process list has a majority of program names in parentheses and without a path. They are not file names. (Process names?). Next I'm going to turn the process list into a genealogy tree. I'm not sure, though, if that this is what I need. Meantime, someone might know what the names in brackets are (last field in the ps records).

Frederic

 

Hi,
to get back to the hidden face of the screen, i use Alt+F2 then xterm
An to become root, sudo bash
It's the more convenient way i found.
cheers
Nico

 

Nico 13,

Thanks for the tip. In the meantime I have been looking at initialization scripts, specifically at /etc/inittab. Here's what I found (My comments have three arrow heads (#>>>):

# inittab This file describes how the INIT process should set up
# the system in a certain run-level.
#
# Author: Miquel van Smoorenburg, <[email protected]>
# Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing and Donnie Barnes
#

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
# 0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 1 - Single User mode
# 2 - MultiUser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
# 3 - Full multiUser mode
# 4 - unused
# 5 - X11
# 6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#
id:5:initdefault: #>>> Sets run level to 5 (multi user, X11, networking)

# System initialization.
si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.S #>>> Single user !!!

l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc.5 5 #>>> Looks like a custom script
l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6

# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes
# of power left. Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.
# This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your
# UPS connected and working correctly.
pf:owerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting Down"

# If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.
pr:12345owerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled"


# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --autologin user tty1 #>>> Auto login bypasses user login
#2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2 #>>> tty1 is the only terminal not commented out
#3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
#4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
#5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
#6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

# Run xdm in runlevel 5
#x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon

#>>> Looks like easy editing. But there's probably more to it than meets the eye. Editing initialization scripts is said to be risky business. So, before I change anything I'm going to make a system recovery USB stick and then have a very close look at other scripts, specifically at /etc/rc.d/rc and /etc/rc.d/rc.5. In the meantime some expert might offer suggestions. My goal is to initialize a multi user system with a login shell, while retaining the installed applications.

Frederic

 

uncomment the tty lines and you *should* reenable the ctrl+alt+f2 etc keys that open terminal text screens normally. remove autologin and you should get login prompt

 

a note on the virtual terminals, you will also need to alter the xorg.conf file, edit out the dontzap and dont vt, to enable ctrl+alt+backspace (restarting x) and ctrl+alt+fkey.
however, although you can switch to a text based terminal just fine, when you switch back or restart the default terminal, it presents the default bootscreen.