[gNewSense-users] Re: gNewSense-users Digest, Vol 4, Issue 6

[Bill McConnaughey]

On Fri, 5 Jan 2007 address@hidden wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:07:33 +1030
> From: Karl Goetz <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: [gNewSense-users] graphics resolution
> To: address@hidden
> Message-ID: <address@hidden>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> Bill McConnaughey wrote:
> > In my first successful gnusense-1.0 installation the screen was in
> > high-resolution mode during installation, and (I'm pretty sure) the Gnome
> > screen was high-rez when I booted the finished disk.  The second time
> > around (on a different hard drive), the installation screen and Gnome
> > screen were 640x480 and no other choice was offered under
> > System--Preferences--Screen Resolution.  And now when I boot the first
> > hard drive I can only get 640x480.  This remains true after shutting down
> > and connecting the Windows disk and booting that (it gets its normal
> > high-rez screen).  Any ideas on what got changed?
> 
> was it the same pc? and was it the same install cd? same video card?

Yes.  Same pc and monitor, no hardware tinkering except the hard drive
swap.  When pc_A was booted on gNewSense the first time, it gave a
high-rez screen (I think 1024x768).  Now, when it is booted on the
gNewSense CD it only gives 640x480, even when it has been shut down,
booted on Windows and tried in several different screen resolution
settings.  "md5sum /dev/cdrom" gives the correct result.
When pc_B is booted on gNewSense it comes up with 1024x768 and allows 5 
other choices.
If this is just some strange hardware problem on one machine, maybe it's 
not worth spending too much time on it.  But I'll be happy to provide any 
details you want.

> > 
> > On the root login issue, I found that the password that I gave for the 
> > user account does work with the sudo command, but does not work to log in 
> > a root session.  However, I did "sudo passwd root" from my user login, 
> > changed the root password, and now can log in as root.
> 
> ...
> 
> i dont get it... on first root login, you found you cant login as root 
> with your password? :|


That's right.  I did <alt><F1> and gave "root" for the username and the
password that I had used in the install.  That failed.  Then I logged in
with the username and password that I had used in the install, and did 
"sudo passwd root", and after that I was able to log in as root.

 > 
> > This is all somewhat confusing, and it might be a good idea to make sure 
> > sysadmins know that the user account that is set up at installation can 
> > give root access.
> 
> Its only confusing if you dont get the concept of loging in as user and 
> running sudo.

I can get a concept.  What's hard sometimes is figuring out what concept I
should get.  The point I want to make here is that the person who installs
gNewSense should be aware that the user account that he sets up in the
installation is effectively a root account.