XFCE starts as root w/o login screen

[Doug Laidlaw]

(Copy for the list.  I hit the wrong Reply button - again  :(  
Addendum: I think that Suse uses init 4, called unused by default.)

On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 02:54:39 pm you wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 5:51 PM, Doug Laidlaw <laidlaws at hotkey.net.au> wrote:
> > On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:19:05 am Mark Knecht wrote:
> >> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 3:09 PM, Mark Neis <neismark at gmx.de> wrote:
> >> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >> > Hash: SHA1
> >> >
> >> > Hi Doug,
> >> >
> >> > thanks for taking the time to answer.
> >> >
> >> > You said:
> >> >> Since XFCE is only the desktop, your problem is further up, or back.
> >> >
> >> > That's exactly my problem. I'm not sure where to look.
> >> > My understanding so far has been that the display manager asks for a
> >> > login. Hence I should probably try to install and start xdm...
> >> >
> >> >> You need to have a user account in the OS, and login as that user.
> >> >
> >> > I do have a user account on the system (I created one), but finding a
> >> > way to make the system require a login beats me. It does on the
> >> > console (i. e. on a different tty), but not when starting X.
> >> >
> >> >> http://fos.foxconn.com/index.php?lanmu_id=44
> >> >
> >> > Documentation about FoxOS is virtually non-existent. I also tried
> >> > Fedora, but as they use Gnome or KDE by default, that didn't take me
> >> > any further, either.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Mark
> >>
> >> What's in your /etc/inittab file? I have a couple of machine I do
> >> auto-login setups on by modifying that file. Maybe these FoxOS guys
> >> did something like that?
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Mark
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Xfce mailing list
> >> Xfce at xfce.org
> >> http://foo-projects.org/mailman/listinfo/xfce
> >> http://www.xfce.org
> >
> > But before you decide about the login, you need to have a user.
> >  /etc/inittab decides whether your display is text-only (level 3) or
> > graphical (level 5). It doesn't create any users.  A proper login needs
> > an xdm or similar file, although KDE allows you to bypass it. There
> > should be a configurator somewhere, but since I run Mandriva, I don't
> > know where to look.  Run "less /etc/passwd"; that will show you which
> > users are known to the system.  If you weren't invited to create a user,
> > there probably isn't one.  If a user such as "guest" is listed, you
> > should be able to log in as that.
> >
> > This is not an Xfce problem.  You need a forum for the OS.  There is a
> > "Support" link on the Web page I gave you; I am not going to do any more
> > of your homework for you.
> >
> > Doug.
> 
> I agree that it's not an XFCE problem so he could take the question
> elsewhere, but I disagree that he doesn't have a user. He said in the
> original post that XFCE is running as root. root is his user, and that
> can be done in inittab.
> 
> - Mark
> 
What is the line in /etc/inittab?  Mine is set out below.

"#
# inittab       This file describes how the INIT process should set up
#               the system in a certain run-level.
#
# Author:       Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels at drinkel.nl.mugnet.org>
#               Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing and Donnie Barnes
#

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by Mandriva Linux are:
#   0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#   1 - Single user mode
#   2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
#   3 - Full multiuser mode
#   4 - unused
#   5 - X11
#   6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 
id:5:initdefault:

# System initialization.
si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6

# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes
# of power left.  Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.
# This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your
# UPS connected and working correctly.  
pf::powerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting Down"

# If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.
pr:12345:powerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled"


# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

# Single user mode
~~:S:wait:/bin/sh "


It only says that the system can be started in Single User mode (failsafe) by 
changing the line:

id:5:initdefault:	#i.e. normal graphical mode

to read:

id:1:initdefault:

Single user mode is a text-only mode, and only the root user is allowed.  
Presumably he is running a graphical view, which is init 5, multi-user.

Apart from single user, there is nothing in /etc/inittab to set him to login 
as anybody in particular -- that is, if there are any other users on the 
system to select.  It happens elsewhere.  If you change the 5 to 3, you get 
console mode, but the usual choice of users.  If he logs in as himself, he has 
to have his own home directory under /home.  The unprivileged user can't write 
to /root/*

Since he is the root user at present, he should be able to look at the 
directory tree under /home, to see what other users there are.

I suspect that because everybody runs Windows with administrative privileges, 
this "consumer" product has set up Linux to run the same way for convenience, 
but without looking at it, I can't say.  I would suggest that he install his 
own choice of distro.

I have no authority here. Can't some guru settle the question?

Doug.