Baslinux mailing list

[Ian Scott <mriscott AT yahoo.co.uk>]

> > Either.  
> > george types:  passwd
> > Root types:    passwd george
> 
> 
> After root types passwd george does it ask whether to change the password?
> How exactly would you specify the password while creating the account if 
> you wanted the null password and the account was named jim? With useradd.
> We tried all the permutations we could think of.

You want to be root and do:

useradd (options) george

passwd george

You will then be prompted to enter and reenter a password for george.  I guess
you can just press enter twice to give him an empty password.

> 
> > > > ----------------------------
> > > > chown -R george /home/george
> > > > ----------------------------
> > > 
> > > /home/user/george?
> > 
> > /home/george
> 
> When we used adduser it put our jim account in /home/user/jim not in 
> /home/jim so I cannot chown /home/jim

As root, type
chown -R jim /home/user/jim.

This translates as:

Make jim the owner of /home/user/jim and all the files under it (-R = 
recursive)

> 
> > 
> > > No directory, logging in with HOME=/
> > > Did we forget to do something else too?

This means you didn't specify a home directory when creating the user.
You can change this with usermod I think, or edit /etc/passwd (the home
directory is the last but one field).
I think you may also get this if the home directory is specified but doesn't
exist - as root you need to do mkdir /home/user/jim or whatever!

> > 
> > /etc/passwd
> > ----------------------------------------
> > george::1000:100::/home/george:/bin/bash
> > ----------------------------------------
> > 
> > > I went to our user account and typed 'lynx' and got unable 
> > > to access document (hotlist.html).

One way round this is to specify what you want to see on the command line.
e.g. "lynx http://www.google.com"; or even "lynx ." to start in the current
directory.
> > 
> > I assume hotlist.html is still in /root.  Natually users
> > do not normally have access to root's home directory.
> > 
> > > DO we need to make copies of all the config files used by 
> > > programs in the user directory, 
> > 
> > Not necessarily.  Config files used by everybody go in /etc 
> > or  /usr/etc  or  /usr/X11/etc  or  /usr/share  or  ???
> > Personal config files go in the home directory.
> 
> So do I copy the config files from kermit, lynx and links to /etc?
> If we (root and user) are all using the same config files is there any 
> need to have them in /root?  How do I know whether to put the config files 
> in /etc or elsewhere?
>

The answer to this one is "read the man pages".  It will be different for
different apps.

Yes I know BL doesn't install manpages by default, but you can usually go
and find them.  If you google for "man programname", you'll often find
what you need.

> > 
> > > I think you said to dial as root and then go online as a 
> > > user 
> > 
> > I dial as user (although it is a wee bit complicated to set 
> > up).  I added ppp-on and ppp-off to my icewm menu, so it is
> > click on, click off.  However, for the moment it will be 
> > simpler for you to dial as root from a tty and then return 
> > to X (where you browse from a user account).
> 
> I normally browse without X.  Opera is reserved for when I need 
> javascript.

If you're interested, I think theres a new version of links with some
javascript support - google for links2.  It will also do graphical browsing
under X, and is by far the fastest graphical browser I've used on low-end
hardware.


Hope this all helps,

Ian