Avoiding password all the time

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,444
Location
Behind you... Naked!
I am fully aware of the implications of not using a password and of using the root account all the time.

But.
The constant asking for the password every time I try to do anything.

I need to stop it. Its irritating and just as annoying as Windows when it does it.

I have used Ubuntu as that has allowed me to bypass the login but I want it completely gone.

Anyone know how to stop it then please let me know?

Thanks.
 
You can configure sudo so that a group your userid is a member of will be able to execute commands via sudo without a password prompt, (nopasswd option is probably what you want).

But it really isn't a good idea.
 
As above, not a good idea, but if you must do so open up a terminal and type sudo visudo. There will be a section that looks something like this in the file that opens:

Code: 
# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL

Simply add a new line with your username and use the above-mentioned NOPASSWD option, like this.

Code: 
FatRakoon       ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL

Then save the file. Sudo (and gksu, as a result) will now no longer prompt you for your password when making changes to things that require administrative privileges. You can, of course, tailor that line so that it only allows you to not enter your password for certain things. To do that, instead of ALL after the colon, simply type the path to the commands, separated by commas.
 
Bye bye security. :p

That said, I have UAC turned off in Win7 but I do love me some sudo to keep the boys at bay.
 
How is it not a good idea though. A password saved and encrypted on the pc would be more secure than a password typed in on the keyboard everytime(as long as it is your own pc). Keyloggers are more rife, and easier to use than file hacking/decrypting software surely?
 
Calabi said:
How is it not a good idea though. A password saved and encrypted on the pc would be more secure than a password typed in on the keyboard everytime(as long as it is your own pc). Keyloggers are more rife, and easier to use than file hacking/decrypting software surely?
Click to expand...

Confused -- what do you mean? Saved & encrypted on the PC? You will still have to type the decryption key in which could be keylogged just as easily, hence giving you access to the one on disk.

Deviating from the standard user/root authentication model is never a sensible idea. Personally I don't like sudo for home/single user systems and prefer to just su to root. But yer, as has been said the best thing in the OPs case is the sudo no password option.
 
Calabi said:
How is it not a good idea though. A password saved and encrypted on the pc would be more secure than a password typed in on the keyboard everytime(as long as it is your own pc). Keyloggers are more rife, and easier to use than file hacking/decrypting software surely?
Click to expand...

No, because it isn't a case of the password being saved and encrypted on the system here ... it's telling the system that if I'm logged in as user fatrakoon then do not even ask for a password when something needs to be run via sudo to give it superuser privileges. Combine this with him already saying that he has disabled the log on password prompt and anyone can boot his machine then do _anything_ to it.

Also it takes away that think point when you are doing something which requires superuser access (which is more likely to screw the system than anything done under a normal user account).
 
Hey up guys, I need to clear thigns up here.

The PC that I want this done on, is my daughters PC.

What possible reason could she have, for being worried that anyone might somehow be able to log on to her PC, and lets just say that somehow anyone is able to... What on earth could they possibly want to gain?

Seriously, she only want to turn on the PC and talk to her mates on facebook.

The level of paranoia is making me laugh out loud so hard that I am actually letting out a bit of wee.

Seriously though, this ammount of paranoia is beyond stupid.

From the people who develop Linux, through to the end user.

Sure, enter a username and password when you log on, but seriously, you dont need to enter your password every 2 minutes when you do anything. Sure, use one when you log in, but that should be it!

Sure if I have something to hide, such as porn etc, then I would want it to be a bit more secure, but come on... This is a PC in a little girls room that at best, has love letters to some boys in school, and at worst notes called me a knobhead.
 
FatRakoon said:
Hey up guys, I need to clear thigns up here.

The PC that I want this done on, is my daughters PC.

What possible reason could she have, for being worried that anyone might somehow be able to log on to her PC, and lets just say that somehow anyone is able to... What on earth could they possibly want to gain?

Seriously, she only want to turn on the PC and talk to her mates on facebook.

The level of paranoia is making me laugh out loud so hard that I am actually letting out a bit of wee.

Seriously though, this ammount of paranoia is beyond stupid.

From the people who develop Linux, through to the end user.

Sure, enter a username and password when you log on, but seriously, you dont need to enter your password every 2 minutes when you do anything. Sure, use one when you log in, but that should be it!

Sure if I have something to hide, such as porn etc, then I would want it to be a bit more secure, but come on... This is a PC in a little girls room that at best, has love letters to some boys in school, and at worst notes called me a knobhead.
Click to expand...

It's not paranoia if they're really after you :p

Seriously though, this is a computer->Linux forum where people follow/understand how an OS works at a low level and when there is a relevant risk if you turn things off it's bound to be brought to the discussion :) No ones said you can't get away with it under certain use cases akin to yours.
 
FatRakoon said:
Hey up guys, I need to clear thigns up here.

The PC that I want this done on, is my daughters PC.

What possible reason could she have, for being worried that anyone might somehow be able to log on to her PC, and lets just say that somehow anyone is able to... What on earth could they possibly want to gain?

Seriously, she only want to turn on the PC and talk to her mates on facebook.

The level of paranoia is making me laugh out loud so hard that I am actually letting out a bit of wee.

Seriously though, this ammount of paranoia is beyond stupid.

From the people who develop Linux, through to the end user.

Sure, enter a username and password when you log on, but seriously, you dont need to enter your password every 2 minutes when you do anything. Sure, use one when you log in, but that should be it!

Sure if I have something to hide, such as porn etc, then I would want it to be a bit more secure, but come on... This is a PC in a little girls room that at best, has love letters to some boys in school, and at worst notes called me a knobhead.
Click to expand...

Whoa whoa whoa ... if it's your daughters PC then frankly there is even more reason not to do it. It's the same as not running as an Admin user on Windows, it decreases the chance of an un-educated user from doing something by mistake which causes damage the system.

All of the things you have listed as things the system is used for should not require escalated privileges over a normal user. Web, email, office tools ... all of these should not require root access and should not require any additional passwords (other than those for individual sites like Facebook).

It's your attitude that is wrong. You say that everyone is overly paranoid and why would they want to break into her machine. Yes there may seem to you that there would be no reason for someone to want to break into her machine ... but the reason to break in is not the content of that machine; it's to give someone a platform to do nefarious things from, (think botnets). Nefarious things which would be traced back to your network connection.

Is it probable that this will happen .... no .... but you'll also find that most Linux system are still not desktops, they are running servers and maybe fufilling tasks where security is paramount. Yes the developers want to produce a secure system because that's the sort of roles that it is designed for.
 
Surely the only time that Ubuntu asks for a password is when you want to change something at admin level anyway?

add software or load upgrades etc?

for day to day use such as facebook and web browsing password access is not required?

can't really fathom why you want to remove the password access at admin level :)

if you really must then simply carry out the instructions offered in post #3 or give your daughter a really easy to remember password.... simmmples really

it's your/your daughters computer do what you want... no arguments :)
 
Ok ok, its not asking for EVERYTHING, I grant you.

However, while there is no root enabled as such, it does ask for her password fairly often.

This REALLY does happen though...

She starts it up, she needs to enter her user name and her password.

She tried to go onto the internet and the wireless is not connected to anything so she connects to my router and for that she needs to enter her password again.

She cannot install a thing unless she also enters her name yet again... It goes on.

The thing is that its her PC and I trust her totally to not do anythign that she does not know about.

In my house the kids have grown up with computers all around them, they have used their own computers since they were toddlers and they have NEVER wrecked them in any way shape or form, and even if they did, it will only take me a few minutes to sort out or if need be, reinstall so its not anythign Im worried about.

My daughter, and indeed my sons too, are extremely computer literate, as are most kids these days. and she relly wants to move to Linux but having to enter her password is the only thing that bugs her.

And I suppose, when moving from Windows, it IS annoying.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom