not able to login as root

[Ric Moore]

On Sun, 2007-06-03 at 09:24 -0500, Net Llama! wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Jun 2007, Ric Moore wrote:
> > On Sun, 2007-06-03 at 11:58 +1000, Keith Antoine wrote:
> >> Ronnie Gauthier wrote:
> >>> On Sat, 2 Jun 2007 14:00:09 +1000
> >>> Keith Antoine <kantoine at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> I have a copy that I installed last week of Mandriva 2007 PowerPack+.
> >>>> I want to login and do some alterations in root. so I cut the auto login out
> >>>> and rebooted only when I put in root as login and root password it told
> >>>> me that there wer no root login available ?????????????????????
> >>>>
> >>>> Is it now impossible or can I work around this, looks like I might have to go
> >>>> to another Distro if not.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Not familiar with Mandriva but I know there are a few distros
> >>> that you need to go to the gui for user management and either
> >>> check/uncheck a box to allow the user root to login. You might
> >>> also have to add root to a desktop or some other group.
> >>>
> >>>
> >> Tried evrything I know to login as root only to be told "root login is
> >> not allowed" and thats it.
> >> sSU is fine but cannot do all I want with this.
> >
> > That sure sounds past crazy... nut gone crazy. There's always ubuntu or
> > Fedora 7. You're welcome to join us in the rpm world. :) Ric
> 
> Mandriva does use RPMs, Ubuntu does not.  Also, Fedora could be 
> equivalently (mis)configured with SELinux to prevent root logins.  Ubuntu 
> doesn't allow logins via GDM as root either.
> 
> So Ric, whatever are you talking about?

I've never seen the root account disabled from the get-go before. Ever.
If the user is having post-install problems, not being able to login as
root would tend to compound the problem, wouldn't it?? Sure, I *could*
configure SElinux to reduce the usefulness of my machine to the level of
a bowl of lime jello, I just don't see why anyone would do that...
although you'd have the option to. 

Back when I blew the hell out of the flyback on a really nice multisync
using xvidtune. But, it did would I told it to do. Ziiinnnng! <poof>
Even got a spot bit of smoke for my effort. But, as with all things pure
linux, mistakes are my own to make and I would resent being denied root
access, even for "my own good". Ric

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