tyme

Couldn't this also be accomplished by chroot from a live cd or another linux distro?

Yes, but when you chroot you are essentially logging in as root on the install you are chrooting to.

Although I don't quite agree with the argument that a machine without a root login is any more secure than one that has one, and there are times when a root login is very useful.

I'm not saying there should be no root (in fact, there can't be no root, simply disabled root), just that you shouldn't log into a Desktop Environment (KDE, GNOME, etc.) as root. You should only access root via mechanisms like su, kdesu and sudo. Root is most certainly a necessary account, and I don't personally like when distributions (like Ubuntu) try to completely disable it (on these systems the first thing I do is re-enable it - I did the same thing on my OS X box).

Don't quite know where the '3 users' comes from, all I could see were myself and root. :unsure:

Any terminal window (or terminal session, really) you have open counts as another "user". If you are logged into a desktop, have on terminal open, and within that terminal su to root top will report three users. If you would like to get some info on what users are logged in and from where you can use the "who" command at a terminal. Here is an example from my server where I'm running screen with 5 terminals open, all running different programs and such (naim, irssi, two shells and top):

mark	 pts/1		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.1)
mark	 pts/2		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.2)
mark	 pts/3		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.3)
mark	 pts/4		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.4)
mark	 pts/5		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.5)

First column is username, second is the terminal session number, third is the date of login, and last is an identifier that is usually linked to the system name or ident information of the source of the connection (in this case you can see the external IP of my system in this information: 209.77.178.36).

Are we not told that Linux is about choice?? So supposing I want to exercise that choice and log in as root.

If you want to do it, you can, you simply have to change an option.

 

Who the hell has the right to think they can stop me? This is my life and this is my computer and if I want to use it in a way that you think is foolish then that is my right too - butt out!!

So learn how to setup it up the way you want and do it (Linux is also about learning - and this change takes maybe 5 seconds and a text editor). They have to choose a default setting (either you can or you can't), and personally I'm glad that they choose the more secure option. It keeps people who don't understand the importance of not running a desktop environment as root from doing so, which keeps their computer (and the internet in general, as their system could be compromised and used for further attacks) safer.

 

But really can't the people that make these decisions see that they have no right to do this?

Actually, they have every right to do this. It's their product. They decide what software to put on it, they decide how the install process goes, they decide every last detail of the distribution they create, as they should - and you are, of course, free to choose to change the default settings, to contact Mandriva directly and suggest changes, or to (gasp) try a distribution that is more inline with your preferences. However, You have a root account. You can access it via su, sudo, kdesu and various other mechanisms. You are only blocked from logging into a desktop as root because it is a security risk. Would you rather them distribute a system with insecure defaults? You know, like Windows?

 

I didn't think so.

anything you need to do as root can be run on an instance basis via the terminal. This is why you do not need to be able to login into a desktop as root. You do not want to do this because vulnerabilities in programs that are running as root can be exploited to gain immediate root access to the system you are using. When running a full desktop instead of running programs on an instance basis the number of programs with possible vulnerabilities that could be exploited increases dramatically, when running this programs as a user if they are exploited the level of access the hacker gains is very limited - as root, it's not limited at all (rm -rf / would succeed). I'm not saying this to criticize anyone, but because it's simply a fact, and people need to be aware of it to keep their system safe.

 

As you can see, I have made few posts, yet most seem to get moved

Do not take the fact that your posts get moved personally. I was a mod and later an admin on this forum for several years, and I can assure you that the reason posts are moved is so that they receive more attention from the people who have the knowledge to help. It is to your advantage to let the mods/admins here do their job, as it will ultimately result in better and more accurate responses. It can also help in the future when someone may be searching for an answer to a similar question and they want to narrow their search to a specific topic. Ultimately, moving your topic causes no harm and likely increases your chances of getting your problem resolved.

From time to time I check the Easy-Urpmi link on the top of this page, looking for some yummy 2008.1 (or 2008 Spring) entry in the dropdown. No joy yet. :sad:

One of the admins has to manually update that page, and before they can do that the page at zarb has to be updated. Just because there isn't an entry on those pages doesn't mean the repositories don't exist, just that the page hasn't been updated (not Mandriva's job).

The fact that Repo's are not available is pretty poor :unsure:

It's probably less "not available" and more "haven't completely propagated yet". I imagine with the hit the servers will be taking from the initial download of the install CD's syncing the repositories is a secondary objective.

tyme not fuddling with arch anymore... hard to believe. :blink:

 

*me marks the current day in his calendar. Tagged: "revolution"* :P

Oh, I still fuddle with it, just in a different way: mail server, apache, etc.

 

Right now the mail server has me stumped...and irritated.

Doesn't the fact that you have posted this on a Mandriva forum send you some kind of subliminal message as to what distro you want??

Why should it? Many of the more active users on this forum don't use Mandriva as their main distro, at least not anymore. And musb has always welcomed questions about other distro's :)

 

I don't want Mint, although not sure why.

If you're not sure why you don't want it, why not give it a try? At least then you'll know why you don't want it :P

 

I've been using Mint for a few months now and it's pretty nice. No complaints so far, it's a good distro to install and not have to worry about. The main reason I've switched to it as my main linux desktop is because I just don't have the time to fuddle with arch's configs anymore (although my webserver runs arch now - tymnia.net)

1.Is it legal to make a copy of Mandriva Powerpack Instalation DIsk, and give it to my friends, or other user ?

2.Is it legal to make a copy of Mandriva Powerpack Instalation DIsk, and sell it ?

No. The powerpack contains some proprietary software that can not be freely distributed and is not under the GPL.

3.Is it legal to install my Mandriva Powerpack to another PC ?

As long as you own the PC.

4.Is it legal to Install my Mandriva Powerpack to my friend computer ?

5.Is it legal to download from torrent or p2p, an old version Mandriva Powerpack, eg Mandriva Powerpack 2007.0 or Mandriva Powerpack 2006.0 ?

No.

 

My answers are best guesses, I, as well as everyone here (save one user - adamw) do not work for Mandriva. The EULA for the Mandriva Powerpack would give you more complete answers as to what you can do once you have legally purchased a copy. Most simply though, if you did not pay for it, you can not legally use it. That's what Mandriva One is for :)

Upgrading 9.1 to 2008 simply isn't a possibility. There is too large of a difference in packages, configuration, and just about every aspect of the system for an upgrade to be successful.

 

If you want 2008 running on this system, it's most likely (99.999999999%) you'll need to do a full rebuild. Back stuff up and good luck.

 

One other tip (and I really do mean this in the nicest way): it may be a good idea to try updating more than once every 5 years. Especially if running a live server.

 

Chalk this one up as lesson learned.

sucks when end users get screwed because someone is being anal about the GPL :unsure:

decided to shell out the cash for the osx version...

Didn't like the CD's, but in the Advanced Installation there's an option for Guild Wars, it downloads gwsetup.exe from the Guild Wars website and installs. Kind of annoying because everytime I visit a new area it has to download a bunch of files, but then I think I prefer it to cd-swapping and having to update later anyways.

 

Also tried SimCity Societies and SimCity 4 Deluxe, haven't had luck with them. SimCity Societies doesn't seem to recognize the CD, and SimCity 4 Deluxe doesn't seem to want to start the install. I may need to tweak some options.

As I see it, the only real hope for Linux and games, is when more and more Game companies start to support Linux natively. Then we may see things start to happen, and have things as they should be, but will that happen . . .?

This is actually much easier than most people think. If dev studios would just can DirectX and start writing with OpenGL and it's associates, we'd all be living happily.

give your user access to sudo by adding them to the wheel group. then use:

sudo /opt/lamm/lampp start

You will still need a password. There is no way around having to enter a password to start the service, root must start it or else it won't run with the proper privileges (IIRC). You could also look into making a shortcut that uses a graphical version of sudo (I can't remember there names - gnomesudo and kdesudo? or gsudo and ksudo...I'm not sure.)

They do have one advantage over Cedega: Cedega doesn't work on OS X (They have that Cider tech, yeah, but that's for dev's not end users).

How did you get Pidgen to darken like that?

That's the GTK2 theme at work...didn't change anything else, just used a dark GTK2 theme.

sounds good...don't know if the author will care to listen, since he didn't take the time to properly research the topic initially.

Let's just say I've made that same mistake myself before, with similar results :D

That's a windows thing, it shouldn't be an issue in Linux.

but it locked up

Moving/resizing existing partitions can take an extremely long time, chances are it didn't lock up but was still processing. This could have looked like a lockup, as the system may have been unresponsive due to the high level of activity and resources being used.

In most cases once you download the RPM file you should be able to just browse to where you saved it, double click and rpmdrake should take care of installing it.

i got it working. i just turned off userdirs and pointed the virtual hosts to the right directory - it was easier than i expected.

how is it that i couldn't find that website?

 

I guess cyf.com would have been a good place to start when a google for "call you free" didn't return worthwhile results... oops.

I've never heard of this program, and google didn't return any useful results. I would contact the software vendor and see if they can provide this information, or see if there's anything in your firewall logs that would help. It may also be that it won't work through NAT :unsure:

 

(Welcome to the board, and sorry my answer isn't more helpful)