[iconicmoronic]

i'm running on ubuntu edgy (6.10). I haven't had any problems loading or unloading, however during a recent update, many installations failed and the menus on my computer disappeared. I feared the worst it may be a linux virus, something i'm totally unfamiliar with. anyhow, another issue i'm having is that i cannot login to my root user account. i always make it the same as my user account password wise (where that might not be the safest thing seecurity wise) so that i won't forget my password, but it won't let me login. hence i'm having problem installing programs because i cannot change my rwx permissions. any help or suggestions? a link to ubuntu forums? in addition to the password i've created, i also tried toor, secret, and [none] to see if ubuntu made its own password.

[vtel57]

Ubuntu does NOT have a ROOT account set up by default, so I'm assuming that you learned how to enable the ROOT account at sometime in the past.

You have a better chance of hitting the lottery than you do of getting a virus in Linux.

Sounds to me like some of the updates you downloaded may have corrupted Gnome (your desktop manager).

Can you login as a regular user?

Ubuntu Forums

[iconicmoronic]

yes i can login, and the source of the comotion with the downloads was from the wine application, and their still failing. that i can figure out and i suppose my system will stand still for a while. But no, i didn't know that there was no root account by default on Ubuntu. Perhaps you can elaborate. I do have a book, unfortunately it is at my dad's house.

[iconicmoronic]

i cant see what this means for changing the rwx permissions on my computer though. ubuntu allows me to right click and modify the permissions under menu, but when i did it at teh console it says operation not permitted. synaptics package manager is definately corrupted. i'll need to insert disk and check if the CD has a rescue mode of sorts. post when back.

[vtel57]

Ubuntu, unlike the majority of Linux distributions, has the ROOT account disabled by default. The regular user can perform some ROOT activities using the "sudo" command in the terminal. Sudo gives the regular user temporary and limited ROOT-like abilities. However, it's not a full ROOT access.

In order to activate the ROOT account in Ubuntu, some steps need to be taken. However, it is NOT recommended by Ubuntu. It's also NOT something that an inexperienced Linux user should be playing around with. ROOT gives you ULTIMATE power on your Linux system... the power to destroy also. One wrong click or command as ROOT can totally trash your operating system.

If you're still interested in learning about ROOT/SUDO and their differences, there is a post about it at the Ubuntu site:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

___________________________________________________________________________ ____________

Unfortunately, I'm not at all familiar with WINE. If you can't get assistance here, then you can try the Ubuntu forums. The link is above in my first post to you. Another excellent source of assistance is Scot Finnie's Newsletter Forums --> All Things Linux. There are many dedicated Linux users there to assist you.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you.

Luck!

~Eric

[iconicmoronic]

all fsck says is clean, memtest no errors. read linux cert chap says to restore fs b4 writing over it. not sure what to do because i'm not sure how to restore it without making it inoperable. i mean i can rewrite a fs and reinstall, not an issue, but i'm worried about it not being bootable/. what do you think?

[vtel57]

I would lay out your situation in detail, starting from the beginning, over at the Ubuntu forums and see what kind of response you get. You can even link to this post here so others can see where you're coming from. There are some serious Ubuntu gurus over there. I'm sure someone will have some step-by-step answers for you. Give it a try...

~Eric