Welcome to HBH! If you have tried to register and didn't get a verification email, please using the following link to resend the verification email.

chess_rock's Avatar
Member
0 0

Hello :) I use ubuntu for 4 months now, and i'm a new linux user, so everything is kind of new to me. I wanted my linux to boot in command prompt, and so, i heard that by disabling GDM i would be able to boot that way. So i went to admin > services, and cancelled it.

I restarted, and everything was looking great. I logged in as root, started x, and when i went to services again, i wasn't able to unblock the services, or add new users with the graphic display. I looked it up in google, but couldn't find anything useful. If anybody could help me, i would be really greatful. Thank you


ghost's Avatar
0 0

Don't log in as root :+


chess_rock's Avatar
Member
0 0

f16e7 wrote: Don't log in as root :+

Sry, i forgot to mention that i have two users. I logged in both in root and the other user, and both have the same problem. When i had GDM activated, i was able to unlock services and users' menus with root only. Non-root users can't even see the panel.


ghost's Avatar
0 0

No, look, I don't know what is causing your problem. I'm not really acquainted with Ubuntu, and the GNOME you're running on top of it. I'm just saying, don't login as root. Like, ever.


ghost's Avatar
0 0

Try this

sudo update-rc.d gdm defaults 13 01

This will just undo your gdm remove. See though if you do this you can go back to modifying the services


chess_rock's Avatar
Member
0 0

stdio wrote: Try this

sudo update-rc.d gdm defaults 13 01

This will just undo your gdm remove. See though if you do this you can go back to modifying the services

Nope, it says the file already exists. Restarted and everything looks exactly the sameā€¦ I mean, black :)


stealth-'s Avatar
Ninja Extreme
0 0

f16e7 wrote: No, look, I don't know what is causing your problem. I'm not really acquainted with Ubuntu, and the GNOME you're running on top of it. I'm just saying, don't login as root. Like, ever.

Don't you mean "don't log in as root graphically, ever"? Because it's kinda hard on some distros to not log in as root ever. Not to mention just a plain root login can sometimes be much faster than a chain of commands with a precedent of "sudo".

Ubuntu's idea of never using the root account directly, and instead obscuring and wrapping it with an over excessive usage of sudo, is, imo, ridiculous.


ghost's Avatar
0 0

stealth- wrote: [quote]f16e7 wrote: No, look, I don't know what is causing your problem. I'm not really acquainted with Ubuntu, and the GNOME you're running on top of it. I'm just saying, don't login as root. Like, ever.

Don't you mean "don't log in as root graphically, ever"? Because it's kinda hard on some distros to not log in as root ever. Not to mention just a plain root login can sometimes be much faster than a chain of commands with a precedent of "sudo".

Ubuntu's idea of never using the root account directly, and instead obscuring and wrapping it with an over excessive usage of sudo, is, imo, ridiculous.[/quote]

I do agree that Ubuntu blocking the root account is dumb, but there is no need to use sudo for multiple lines. You can just sudo a new shell, and effectively do the same thing as "su"

EDIT:I suppose I will use this space to say that if you are really keen on using Ubuntu, you should look into Linux mint. Based off Ubuntu/Debian, has all the same features + extras. After becoming tired of manually doing everything all the time, Linux Mint has become a permanent OS on part of my machine. Oh and it doesnt block the root account.


stealth-'s Avatar
Ninja Extreme
0 0

stdio wrote: [quote]stealth- wrote: [quote]f16e7 wrote: No, look, I don't know what is causing your problem. I'm not really acquainted with Ubuntu, and the GNOME you're running on top of it. I'm just saying, don't login as root. Like, ever.

Don't you mean "don't log in as root graphically, ever"? Because it's kinda hard on some distros to not log in as root ever. Not to mention just a plain root login can sometimes be much faster than a chain of commands with a precedent of "sudo".

Ubuntu's idea of never using the root account directly, and instead obscuring and wrapping it with an over excessive usage of sudo, is, imo, ridiculous.[/quote]

I do agree that Ubuntu blocking the root account is dumb, but there is no need to use sudo for multiple lines. You can just sudo a new shell, and effectively do the same thing as "su"

EDIT:I suppose I will use this space to say that if you are really keen on using Ubuntu, you should look into Linux mint. Based off Ubuntu/Debian, has all the same features + extras. After becoming tired of manually doing everything all the time, Linux Mint has become a permanent OS on part of my machine. Oh and it doesnt block the root account.[/quote]

I made the chain of sudo commands comment because ubuntu doesn't recommend using sudo su or sudo -s sInce it is, like you said, virtually the same as spawning a root session.

I've heard of linux mint quiet a bit, and assumed it was a more pretty version of ubuntu. I wasn't aware it unblocked the root account or made any efforts to improve ubuntu other than making it more pretty and more compatible with wine. Maybe I'll check it out. I seriously doubt I would switch to it (I'm more of a gentoo man, myself), but I love checking out new distros.


ghost's Avatar
0 0

f16e7 wrote: No, look, I don't know what is causing your problem. I'm not really acquainted with Ubuntu, and the GNOME you're running on top of it. I'm just saying, don't login as root. Like, ever.

stealth- wrote: Don't you mean "don't log in as root graphically, ever"? Because it's kinda hard on some distros to not log in as root ever. Not to mention just a plain root login can sometimes be much faster than a chain of commands with a precedent of "sudo".

Yeah, I did mean "don't log in as root graphically, ever". On the other hand, I also won't recommend using su. If you want a secure machine, you should disable the use of su for various reasons.


chess_rock's Avatar
Member
0 0

Well, i did try to login with every single user to try and fix the problem, and for this, i also used root. But I never log in with root directly.

I'd like to thank you Moshbat since init 3 and init 5 solved my problem. I just don't understand one thing. What is the main difference between init 3, 5 and startx? Both inits work the same way, and startx loads the graphical mode without some aspects, like the users/groups unlock option. I googled it up and couldn't find their difference. What i've found, is that startx doesn't load the graphical login screen.


ghost's Avatar
0 0

MoshBat wrote: init sets the run level.

Allow me to expand, please.

0 Halt 1 Single-User mode 2-5 Full Multi-User with console logins and display manager if installed 6 Reboot

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runlevel#Debian_Linux

*edit: fix0rred.


chess_rock's Avatar
Member
0 0

Thank you both xD I will look it up on google. I've been into linux for less than one year, so i haven't really got natural with it. The keyword: "run level" is the important part of this thread. That will be my google search ;) Don't worry Mosh, i promise i'll study and learn the meaning of that xD