[CentOS-docs] becoming root

[Rafał Ślubowski]

Hi, Ned.
You wrote:

>  I've had a quick look at consolehelper, and I'm still not sure I fully
> understand how it works, at least enough to be able to write a section on
> it. I understand it uses pam authentication when running a program that
> requires root privileges and requests the root password
> (system-config-services being an example), but I don't fully understand how
> a user would use it, although I see any application could potentially be
> configured in /etc/pam.d/

If we want to say really everything about becoming root, we should
also mention consolehelper as it is the most powerfull method - su
doesn't need any config, sudo needs simple, but configurable sudoers,
and consolehelper uses pam. I realize of course that ordinary user
mustn't mess with pam :^) , but admin-beginner should know about that
method, and our HOWTO could be a good introduction. Of course we
shouldn't explain every pam module here, just the basic config.

I'm doing most of my admin job in console with sudo, but I know that
if my users migrate one day from XP to Linux, they will not want to
use su/sudo to run programs with raised privileges.

>  How far such an article should be expanded, and whether we wish to cover
> every conceivable method for launching something with root privileges is
> probably not something for me to answer. That said, if you'd (or anyone)
> like to expand on my initial remit and write an additional section, please
> feel free :)

I've mentioned consolehelper just because I think I can write such
section. Of course it should be proofreaded because of my English.

>  On an additional note, whilst investigating consolehelper, I also noticed
> the "Run Command..." option on the KDE Menu (...). Perhaps a gnome
> user could advise if gnome has similar functionality?

There is a gnomesu (http://xsu.sourceforge.net/) project.

Regards,

Rafal