Linux question time...

Factual Questions
1

So guys, I’m still working on Amazon’s EC2 stuff here. Feel free to ask any questions about it here if you like.

But anyway, I started with a base Ubuntu server image, and we’ve messed around and done little things here and there. But the other day I wanted to make it into a desktop version of Ubuntu.

I followed the directions here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-186298.html

Now I will also add that I am using NXServer to reach the client. It works pretty well and I am satisfied with the results too.

Anyway. I had to create a new user account when I did so. No biggie. There are loads of ways to do that.

So I logged in to my fresh desktop install. It’s pretty cool, but when I go to the users directory to add a user, I learn that i have no control at all. I can’t change anything and I can’t log in as root. I don’t even get asked for a password to be able to change things.

Anyone know what I’m doing wrong? I feel like I’m not adding the correct type of user or something, but I’m not terribly sure. Is anyone familiar with this and knows how to fix it? I’m not very good with groups and permissions yet.

There are many utilities to create a new user. I used ‘user-setup’ so it was pretty easy.

At any rate. I’m curious as to how I could make this work. I am sure that I’m just not creating the correct type of user. Actually if there was a way to launch that add user control panel as root, I think it would work, but I don’t know the command.

Again, just looking for some answers here.

Secondly, I really digg the way that the terminal colors different files different colors on ubuntu, but when I changed my .bashrc to match that, it didn’t work. But I am using OSX, so there might be some incompatibilities. But any help is appreciated.

2

I’m not sure what you mean when you refer to user types. In order to create new users, you’ll need to be root. What happens when you try to login using your root account? What error messages are you getting? Are you trying to edit /etc/passwd directly or using a user creation script of some sort?

3

You need to use sudo-- that’s just the way Ubuntu is set up (at least for the desktop edition).

Here is some helpful documentation.

4

As Pseudocode says, on Ubuntu there is no root user; use the sudo command. I don’t particularly like the way that’s set up, but that’s mostly because I’m a Debian user and not used to it. Furthermore, this being *nix and all, there are command-line utilities for user maintenance (if necessary) – see the manpages (i.e., man adduser and man passwd).

As for the color listing, see the manpage for ls. I have the following two lines in my .bashrc (again, a Debian machine; note the backticks, not single quotes, in the first line):



eval "`dircolors -b`"
alias ls='ls --color=auto'

Having just set up a Leopard machine, it seems that you also set up an alias on OSX for the same effect, except it’s a -G switch. Oh, and I just figured this one out, which was pretty irritating at first – on OSX you probably want create a symbolic link from .bashrc to .bash_profile, as the former gets run when starting X11, but the latter is run when terminal is started.

Hope that helps some…

5

Sorry for posting such a vague question. My brain was mush from mucking around with this stuff all day, you know how it goes…

But I’ve figured out what my problem is here, and maybe you guys can help me work around this?

First, I’m running this as an Amazon EC2 instance. So there is indeed a root user. Although it is Ubuntu Hardy, the EC2 way of doing things is, apparently, to log in as root. I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that the images are static, and if anything bad happens you can just relaunch.

But what I was trying to do was access it using NX. NX is a cool replacement for VNC that is super-fast. It is essentially like doing ssh -X except it is super-fast. I’ll put it this way, it’s so fast that it’s pretty bearable to work on a remote instance.

Anyway though, the problem is that this is what is causing my admin problems. Apparently there is something with FreeNX that prevents ‘policykit’ form working right. I was under the impression that user-setup was somehow the culprit, but it turns out it’s NX.

So I guess I’ll ask, is there any way I can find out where these sysadmin apps live? That way I could just launch them? I realize there are other tools for doing such things but I am just curious now, I suppose. I just hate setting up a system that isn’t completely functional, I guess.

As for the bash thing, I have sourced my .bashrc in my .bash_profile. Yes it’s annoying as hell. I have gotten color turned on once, by using the -G switch I feel, but it was all messed up. The colors were really bright and unreadable. The ones I was using in Ubuntu were far better.

I’ll let you guys know if I get it working

6

I’ve never used – actually, never heard of – FreeNX before, so I probably won’t be able to give much direct help. However, this is of interest to me, because there’s a distinct possibility that I’ll be looking into renting CPU time from one of the “clouds”. (Yes, the distributed computing project for the research lab where I work.)

With that in mind, it’s not clear to me what you mean when you say “is there any way I can find out where these sysadmin apps live?” I’m assuming that the apps to which you are referring are part of the FreeNX package(s)? If so, you can start synaptic to view information about a given package (including the files installed).

I also googled “freenx policykit” and it seems you’re not alone. Here’s a thread on the Ubuntu forums that I think matches your problems (note that I didn’t see any good solutions, but something there might also help). Additionally, I found a bug report that does list some workarounds. It looks like user volksman posted in both places, and in the bug report comments, he says his problem was resolved.

As to getting color directory listings, on OSX I seem to recall that the manpage had something about choosing/setting custom colors (but I’m not in front of an OSX machine and so can’t check). Again, Ubuntu should be similar to Debian in this regard as posted above. (And confirmed in this tutorial; from 2005, but I assume it’s still accurate.)

Do let us…well, me, since I may have to duplicate your effort…know how it’s going…