F10 and no root login - impossible to maintain systems!
Benjamin LaHaise
bcrl at kvack.org
Wed Jan 21 02:55:33 UTC 2009
Hi folks,
I've been holding back my tongue on this one, but I've been bitten by it
enough times now that I think I can write something with a clear head. To
put it shortly: disallowing root logins by default is a complete headache
for systems where anything goes wrong. I've run into several different
failure modes now: if / and /tmp get full, it's impossible to login as a
normal user, and if NFS goes down and /home isn't accessible, one cannot login
to fix the problem.
I think the push for never allowing root to login is daft and inconsiderate
of the needs of users who maintain systems. I much prefer the F9 policy of
putting up a warning and allowing me to proceed -- I know it's impossible to
make everything on the desktop root-safe and I don't expect it. The system
should not decree that it knows better than me, though.
-ben
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