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On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:43:05 +0100 Rob Beard <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi folks, > I was trying to delete some files from my USB pen drive this morning. > For some funny reason I couldn't delete a couple of files out of the > Trash can (I'm running Ubuntu Edgy 6.10 Beta). I figured, okay I > haven't got time to mess around so I opened up a terminal, changed to > the USB key directory and ran... > > rm -fr .Trash-Rob > > Great I thought, that's the trash emptied (it was complaining about a > permissions problem which I considered strange on a FAT formatted > device!). > > I then wanted to do something else in the terminal window, I think it > was checking the MD5SUMs of Ubuntu Edgy that I had downloaded. > > I entered cd / and pressed enter. Unfortunately I think, I'd hit the > up arrow key a second before so I actually entered the command... > > rm -fr .Trash-Rob cd / > > Good old Ubuntu remembered my password on the sudo command as I'd > previously entered it a few seconds before. Before I knew it I was > rm'ing everything from / downwards! > I have decided to go for kubuntu and all along one of my worries has been the use of sudo and the fact that it keeps you in root mode for 15 minutes. Your experience shows that I was right to worry. The remedy is quite simple, at least in concept. When I need to go to root mode (I am using Mandriva at the moment) in a terminal I simply use su and password. As soon as I have finished I type in exit and enter and I am back in normal user mode. If I am in something like 'configure your computer' which asks for the root password, as soon as I have finished I exit back to the desktop and I am again back in normal user mode. There is no nonsense about being left as root for up to 15 minutes. Who came up with that one? Anyway, as I say, the remedy is simple. We need a simple command in (k)ubuntu which switches you back to normal user and cancels the rootmode. No leaving it as root for 15 minutes. (I wonder who came up with that one?) Then we users could run this command as soon as we had finished with the command that needed root. Perhaps we as a user group should put some pressure on the ubuntu programmers to provide it. IMHO it would be much safer and not at all difficult to use. I wonder what happens in ubuntu now if the 15 minutes run out while a command is still running?? What do lug members think? Neil Winchurst > > -- > The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG > http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list > FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html