su problem

Chemtux · Posted: Wed May 29, 2002 8:19 am Post subject: su problem

A couple of days back, I started having problems with 'su', I can still run the command, but after that I can't launch every program like ifconfig or give a init 0.

Does somebody have any ideas

Greetz
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Nope

ElCondor · Posted: Wed May 29, 2002 8:48 am Post subject:

you have to "su -"
an ordinary su gives you superuser privileges, but su - performs a (nearly) full login, including setting the paths for root.
"ifconfig" is in /sbin/ which is not in the $PATH for normal users

* ElCondor pasa *
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Here I am the victim of my own choices and I'm just starting!

Chemtux · Posted: Wed May 29, 2002 5:45 pm Post subject:

Thanks, but when did this change??? And do they mention this anywhere standard??
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Nope

rizzo · Posted: Wed May 29, 2002 7:03 pm Post subject:

Linux has always been that way, as far as I've used it (6 years). It's not just a gentoo thing. It applies to su to any user, not just the root login.

Perhaps before you had actually logged in as root.

Chemtux · Posted: Wed May 29, 2002 7:30 pm Post subject:

Hi,
I have also been using linux for at least six years, but after the installation of gentoo-1.0, is was possible to run ifconfig, when I used su from within the wheel group. And I know from other distro's like SuSE it is also possible with only the command 'su', to change the runlevel to zero and run ifconfig.
I think this was caused by a resent update I performed, I will try to find out which...............not so long ago I did a major update and changed the base-layout of the system..................
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Nope

rizzo · Posted: Wed May 29, 2002 7:42 pm Post subject:

meh. I just have the habit of always including the dash. Never run into problems then.

radfaraf · n00b Joined: 25 May 2002 Posts: 55 Location: NJ

I noticed with su - I get my nice prompt instead of bash-2.05a$
where are the settings for this being loaded from.

AutoBot · l33t Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Posts: 968 Location: Usually Out

Same thing has happened to me and I haven't done any major updating, no big deal but it would be nice to know what happened.

I hate when something changes without me doing it

To radfaraf you can add the following to your ~/.bashrc and achieve the same effect if I understand what your saying.

radfaraf · n00b Joined: 25 May 2002 Posts: 55 Location: NJ

I see the code i wanted in there
export PS1='\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h \[\033[01;34m\]\W \$ \[\033[00m\]'

TwoSlick · Posted: Fri May 31, 2002 12:23 am Post subject:

Strange thing. Same thing happened here, but I noticed something. When I do the plain su, I don't have the correct paths, but I CAN open X-windows programs finally.

When I tried su - , the paths are correct, but I'm back to not being able to open x-windows programs.

Now..... I tried Autobot's suggestion of adding source /etc/profile, and now I have the best of both worlds. With plain su, I have all of my correct settings, AND I can open X-win programs!!!

- Tim