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Autologin for user account

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gold_finger:
Okay.  On Ubuntu-based Linux distros, the user is NOT running as an administrator (as root) during normal operation.  You can temporarily be granted root privileges to perform admin activities, like installing software, but to do so requires entering a password.  Nothing can be done to make critical system changes without entering the password.  There's no pop-up box that you just click "OK" on -- you have to enter a password to do anything as root.

Root privileges expire within a short time frame (approx. 10 minutes I think), or as soon as you close out the program you were conducting the admin functions in.  Then you are back to running as a normal user again.

To run a command in the terminal as root you begin the command with "sudo", then enter your password.  For example, if you wanted to install the "Radiotray" program, you would not be able to do it with this command:

--- Code: ---apt-get install radiotray
--- End code ---

You would have to precede the command with "sudo" like this:

--- Code: ---sudo apt-get install radiotray
--- End code ---

Then, you would have to confirm the action by entering your password when asked -- otherwise the action will fail.

If you want to run a GUI program as root, then you precede the command with "gksu".  Here's an example where you open the Leafpad text editor as root:

--- Code: ---gksu leafpad
--- End code ---

If your password is known by others, or easily guessed then that's a different problem.  Aside from that, admin functions can't be performed without you deliberately allowing them.

Long story short -- you don't need to create a separate user account.  It's a good thing to have for other users of the computer that you don't want to give root privileges to, but if it's just you there is no need for that.

With regard to keeping data on a separate partition, I like that idea and do the same thing myself.  Makes things a lot easier if you ever need to re-install, upgrade, switch distros, or access the same data from different operating systems.


P.s.  Some other Linux distros do things differently.  They may indeed have separate root and normal users and not use the "sudo" and "gksu" methods of granting temporary elevated privileges; but that's not the case with LL.

Colin23erk:
thanks for replying

From what I have read about using Linux.  For Security it is better not to use the Administrator Account for everyday use so I created a separate User account that I wanted to use without a Login Password .

As a single home user and new to Linux I wonder if the security aspect applies more to Corporate System Administrators or is better when connected to the internet to help prevent  malware etc being installed.

As a long time computer user I have been security minded by always separating my OS and Data into different partitions so that I can replace a faulty OS without loosing my Data.

Colin

gold_finger:
Colin23erk,

I'm not entirely clear on what you are trying to do.  I'm guessing that you want the non-admin user to be automatically logged in on startup.  If that's the case, as noted above, the GUI doesn't work for some reason.  (Or, I just don't know right way to get it to work.)

If you follow advise in my last post to edit the file responsible for auto-login manually, you should be able to get it working.

If that's not what you are trying to do, let us know.

Colin23erk:
on this subject
When I tried to use ----System/ Login Settings/ Autologin   - it failed because I did not have Sudo privileges
I went into my Administrators Account and gave my User Account Sudo privileges .
Set up Autologin on my User Account and then went back and removed Sudo.

Autologin works OK but I get an error later ---"The login keyring did not get unlocked when you logged into your computer." --- which defeats the exercise of using AutoLogin . I found aswers on the web but not for Lite - UbuntuHandbook talked about  Unity Dash but I did not find it with ---Run> unity
If I reverse the option using Sudo privileges normal login returns

I have also tried changing my User Password via ---Settings/User Manager/ Change Password - but even entering User and Administrator passwords when asked nothing happened . I have also tried to change the Administrators Password but it appears that the password used first is difficult to change .
Any simple help via GUI appreciated
Colin

william_st_ia:
Thanks so much for the help!

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