Login username and password in Acer One

Hello!

I have just bought this mini laptop, Acer Aspire One, AA110 model, with Linux Linpus installed. I have little knowledge about Linux and I did not understand why there is no "login system", with username and password, at the boot and start (as in Windows or even other Linux systems, like Suse). I don't know if there was a "first screen" to configure an username and password, since when I bought it from the store, the box was already opened, since the seller had made a RAM upgrade to 1GB RAM. I just know that when I press the "on/off" button, to initialize it, there is no login box for username and password. I thought this is vaery dangerous for security reasons, so I would like to know if someone can explain me more about this.

Thanks in advance,

Cristina

 

AFAIK, on the One there is one user, simply called 'user'.
Login is automatic, as this user.
This user is in a group called 'wheel'.
And wheel is in the sudoers file.

from /etc/group :

and from /etc/sudoers :

( I took this from a copy of a restore-dvd. )

I have no idea what this means for security, I think the Acer/Linpus people wanted it to be as little frustrating as possible.

--Japser.

 

You can change the default behavior to display a login screen. Directions are in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=363&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=autologin#p3710

Perry
www.kidpub.com

 

..but before doing this, do you have a password?

Just that if the vendor set one and didn't tell you, you'll be a bit stuck if you need it to get logged in!

 

The password is the one that you used during initial setup of your AA1.

If you need to change or reset it, you can hit Alt-F2, then in the box that appears type:

sudo passwd user

And click 'Run in terminal'

This will let you change the password.

Perry
www.kidpub.com

 

Well, yes: but the OP did say that the setup had already been done before she received the machine - so she didn't do the initial setup.

 

You should still be able to change the password with sudo, even if you don't know the user password.

Perry
www.kidpub.com

 

Good grief. You can, on the One, by default; that's not the Right Thing at all!

I'd rather comment the line containing NOPASSWD out of my sudoers file; I don 't even want myself to have non-password root status! However, I'm wondering what this might break; are there things being run under sudo by Linpus which are critical to operation?

 

I don't think that any of the software uses sudo internally, it's really a user thing. You can test it easily enough, just edit sudoers as you suggest and see if anything breaks.

You also can set a root password different from the user password...

Code:

su -
passwd

Perry
www.kdpub.com

 

Well, I have done this, and I could change the password (at least, the script in the terminal allowed it) ... BUT, but, but .... when I tried to add software (in the so called "advanced mode" - right click menu), the dialog box asks me the "root" password". It says: "You are attempting to run 'pirut' which requires administrative privileges, but more information is needed to do so. Authenticating as 'root':" (and then there is a box for the password) .. Well, my "brand new" password, which I got with that SUDO command, does note work in this case! ... bleeehhhh!

 

Easy enough to fix.

sudo su -
Assuming you've set sudo to require a password for such things, put in your password.

Now you are root and can set the root password.

passwd

It will ask you to enter a password, then to enter it again to make sure you didn't mistype.

Now you have a root password that you can use for such things.

 

I'm at this point too. As a total Linux newbie (I'm a Mac user & not ashamed of it!), I'd like:

A/ to be able to throw out unwanted software, such as Games, in order to free up space on the the flash "HD" and add new stuff, such as Skype;
B/ to secure my system against undesirables;

for both of these requirements, I apparently need root user access and, try as I might, i can't seem to find how to get this for the AA1, and I don't seem to be the only one. Any useful advice would be welcome.

 

Just typing:

Code:

sudo passwd

Will allow you tochange the password for root, without having to know the current password.
Yes - the default security of the One is indeed pathetic.

Fortunately, truecrypt can be installed to at least protect some data

 

Just a heads-up on setting passwords:

Just got my Acer w/ Win Xp yesterday, and went to the BIOS set-up to set a password. Saved-on-exit, but then could not log-on with my new password on re-start....w.t.f? ....THE BIOS HAD SAVED MY NEW PASSWORD WITH CAPS-LOCK ON ! Don't remember seeing the caps-lock activated when I set the password, so don't know how it happened.
Logged-in w/ caps-lock on, and voila!! ......I was sweatin' for a while there.....

W14

UPDATE: I just tried to set the password to what I really wanted, making sure the caps-lock was off for the new one - guess what, it saved it again w/ caps-lock on, even though it was shown as OFF.

 

After flashing the BIOS to the newest version, the caps lock problem is solved.

Well ok - not solved. The system just does not care about case anymore - so PASSWD, passwd, PaSSwd and PAsswd would all be considered to be the same.