RE: [cobalt-users] multiple admin logons

["Jolley, Carl" <Carl.Jolley@xxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: jale@xxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 1:05 PM
To: cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [cobalt-users] multiple admin logons



>Is there a way (RAQ 3i) to have additional super-users? I want to create
>other users with admin privileges so I don't have to logon as admin to do
>what I need to do. I want other logons with their own password but able to
>do what admin does. For instance, if admin password gets fouled up I want
>to be able to logon as another admin-person to fix it. I can then also give
>my administrators a logon that I can disable if/when necessary.
>--------------------
>You _might_ want to consider editing the /etc/passwd file for the
>specified users and set the uid field to 0. Then that users would
>effectively be root. Be aware though that any such users can reboot
>your severe and/or shut it down as well as remove any file(S). Note
>also that such a user can change the root and admin passwords, effectively
>locking you out of the server.

THANKS!! The latter is what I want to be able to help with - very few 
people have real access to our RAQ box; but *in case* the admin/root 
password got lost, I want to be able to logon as one of my alternate users 
and reset it.  With your solution, could I logon to the GUI with an 
alternate logon and still do what admin could do? Like reset the admin 
password back to a known name?  I do realize the power of admin/super-user 
privilege.
---------------------

I don't know for sure but I don't believe that you could use the alternate
user to logon to the GUI. However, you should be able to SSH to the box and
logon
with the alternate user do an su - admin and then reset the password for
admin and
similariarly for root. Then you could logon to the GUI with admin and the
new
password. In any event, after you create the alternate root user(s), it
should
be easly enough to see if you can use such an alternate user to log on to
the
GUI. -- I just tried it with a RaQ550 and it did not work.