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Re: [LUG] Laptop problem

 

On Tue, 5 Dec 2017 08:48:04 +0000
Neil <barnaby@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>My wife is the only user on that 
> machine so she does have root rights.
> 
I am not sure that we are on the same page!  It is X that needs to run
with root privileges under the 'legacy' setup; there has been a
recent move to running X as a normal user, it being more secure
(actually, less non-secure), but this is still being debugged and can
result in the Xserver losing sight of input devices. 
 
As a normal $user, the only root rights your $wife should have
is the password; this will then confer #root rights when used to $su to
#root when it is impossible to do things as a normal $user or a $sudoer
(e.g. IIRC clamav will not run properly if installed using $sudo), hence
the explicit granting of root rights to X (and 'only' X) when
launched as $user.  

>I have tried to SSH from my desktop to my laptop, just 
>to see how it works. So far I have failed, it does not see the laptop. 

Have you installed sshd on the laptop? I have had to manually install
it on several distributions.  Is there any way you can get console
access on the laptop to check (grub?)? I would hope that if you have not
explicitly chosen to allow ssh access to your wife's laptop, your
distribution's default installation would be a firm 'no way' and
configure pam, iptables, security
and /etc/ssh/sshd_config accordingly.  I have
fallen foul of this several times during fresh installations: the
nuisance of having to drag a monitor and keyboard to a headless machine
(or worse, vice versa) has taught me to try and remember that if you
havent got a properly configured sshd_config, you will not be able to
ssh in. You'd think I'd have learned this after doing it a
couple of times....

I am new to this forum.  Please forgive me if I
have caused any offense with a 'back-to-basics' post,
it most certainly is not my intention.

Best wishes

fraser





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