I deleted the root user! Help!

BjarneDM said:
The major problems are that he is blundering around in the system like an elephant in an antiques store; and is very bad at giving feed-back; and very bad at following instructions to the letter.
Click to expand...
:)

The lesson for any other "elephants" that may be following this thread is...

Get another hard drive and create a bootable clone of your main drive. "Elephant" your way around on that one when you want to try something new and complicated.

I've learned a whole lot watching this thread.
 
There is an easier way to use BBEdit for modding the conf file than you described.

Just use BBEdit as normal but select "Open Hidden...". Then in the Open dialog box set All Files, not Readable files in the top drop menu.

You can browse to any file, anywhere. Once it's open you can click on the Pencil Icon (on the very left, it will have a slash though it at first). Clicking it alllows one to save the file.

You'll get a warning that the file is owned by root but you'll be able to save after clearing the slash mark (you'll have to supply your password).

I think TextWrangler works exactly the same way. It's from BBEdit too, it's a free, limited version of BBEdit.
 
g/re/p said:
sudo= super user do and requires an admin level password
or your username must be in the sudoers file.

It gives you limited root priviledges, but does not fully log
you in as the root user.
Click to expand...

The whole "sudo su" dance is a bit too convoluted, sure it get you the results you want but there is a Better Way(tm). Just use "sudo -s" which just runs a shell as root. That is as "logged in" as root as the other rout and you never have to enable the root user.
 
1)That didn't happen!
2)Yes, I typed the commands exactly as you gave them
3)That's where I decided to install it, should I install it to /darwinports? I don't like installing programs in the root dir.
----------------------------------------------------
0) The only thing I changed was "export PATH=/darwinports/bin:/darwinports/sbin:${PATH}" to "export PATH=/Applications/darwinports/bin:/Applications/darwinports/sbin:${PATH}" I wasn't sure about changing anything in the .bash file.
1) done
2) nothing
3) done
4) no port in /darwinports/bin /darwinports/sbin /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/sbin

About the sudo stuff, if I type "su root" it still logs in as "nobody", it will do that for any su or sudo command I try. I'm sorry I'm an elephant or whatever I really don't want to go blundering around my hard drive, I just want to install gimp!
 
starboardman said:
About the sudo stuff, if I type "su root" it still logs in as "nobody", it will do that for any su or sudo command I try. I'm sorry I'm an elephant or whatever I really don't want to go blundering around my hard drive, I just want to install gimp!
Click to expand...

Did you try sudo -s ?

What happens?
 
1) :mad: When making modification to very clear instuctions it's bl**dy important to tell the one having given the instructions that you've done so. You've mangled the process and left me trying to find out what has gone wrong with my instructions even though the bl**dy fault is all yours :mad: As I've told you before: you MUST learn to give proper feed-back :mad:

2) the line you've made the change to has nothing at all to do with where DarwinPorts has been installed. I would still be installed in '/darwinports' as that's controlled by the script in the './configure' command.

3) if all you really want is to run Gimp, then I'ld really recommend an nice *.dmg instead to you: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22990 . You are much better off with that than trying to get DarwinPorts to work for you.

4) from what you are reporting, DarwinPorts hasn't been installed, so let's leave it at that. And go look at that nice *.dmg. That's the one I'm using to my great satisfaction.

5) as to you still having 'nobody' in the command prompt that is possibly due to you not having corrected the 'nobody' or 'root' user accounts correctly in 'Netinfo Manager'. Go back in the thread and look at the commands I've used to generate dumps from 'Netinfo Manager'. Execute these commands - they are hamless and you can't make any damage to anything by using them. Then very carefully compare the output I've posted with the output you get. Then and only then can you start 'Netinfo Manager' and correct the entries in the 'nobody' and 'root' account. Double- and triple-check your changes very, very carefully before committing them. There's a way to check that you've actually logged in as root:
Code: 
[22:42:53@~]$ sudo su - root
[22:43:00@root]# pwd
/var/root
/var/root is the home directory for 'root'. If you get anything else something is still wrong in 'Netinfo Manager'.
 
BjarneDM said:
You are just so wrong.
1) There's nothing wrong with prefixing with 'sudo'; I might be going a little bit far, but it's working. And there is a difference: If you use just 'su' you'll be prompted for the password of the user you want to switch to; if you use 'sudo su' you'll be prompted for your own admin password and not the password of the user. And as I've implemented the 'sudo' trick from the fink page I gave the link to, I'm never ever prompted for my admin password. Thus, for me it's actually an advantage to prefix 'su' with 'sudo'.
2) Try reading the man pages for 'su' and look at the '-l' (or just '-') option. There is a major difference between 'sudo su root' and 'sudo su - root' that you ought to be aware of. And I did write switching fully !
Click to expand...

Actually no, i am not wrong about sudo su -root not working - it does not work.

I misread what you wrote: sudo su - root, which does work.

Honest mistake :D


Also - implementing the 'sudo' trick from fink so that you are never ever prompted for an admin password may be convenient, but it leaves your computer in a insecure state - making it easier for malicious programs or anyone with physical (or remote) access to gain root level control of your computer.
 
I'm sorry man, I am trying to tell you exactly what I'm doing, and I'm thankful for all your help. I have installed gimp and darwinports before using the .dmg files, but they don't seem to work. I don't know if it has to do with the X11 stuff, but when I load gimp.app here's what happens:
{A prompt comes up that's titled "Welcome to XFree86".
"The X11 environment can display windows on a separate virtual screen or rootless on the Mac OS X desktop. Choose the display mode to use:"
Then I have to choose between Full Screen or Rootless. I've tried both options, it doesn't make any difference. After I pick an option, Gimp is loaded but all I can do with it is Quit, that's the only menu option.}

I agree it would be much easier for both of us to just get it working from the .dmg installation I did. So do I need to change some X11 settings or what?
 
Forget about using DarwinPorts and installing Gimp through there. Install Gimp from the link I posted. I doesn't require anything else than what you've already available in Mac OS X.
 
The same thing happens, comes up with the Xfree86 screen and then Gimp loads after I pick an option but the only menu option is to quit. what's up with that? ?
 
having just read this thread, i have to ask this. was apple's x11 installed from the cd/dvd? also in order to do any kind on compiling, he has to have the devloper sw installed and all the sdk's. without having do this, fink will not work and he'll get the errors like he has been getting, like the missing directories and unknown commands. just food for thought, having been there myself when learning to use fink.
as far as ni and root, the first thing i have always done with a new os install is to go and enable the root to set a password to plug that sercurity hole and then dissable. then i never use ni again, unless i need to put a user account on a different hd. hosing my system is just something i don't like doing, so i don't tempt fate by playing in ni.
 
sinclair_tm said:
having just read this thread, i have to ask this. was apple's x11 installed from the cd/dvd? also in order to do any kind on compiling, he has to have the devloper sw installed and all the sdk's. without having do this, fink will not work and he'll get the errors like he has been getting, like the missing directories and unknown commands. just food for thought, having been there myself when learning to use fink.
as far as ni and root, the first thing i have always done with a new os install is to go and enable the root to set a password to plug that sercurity hole and then dissable. then i never use ni again, unless i need to put a user account on a different hd. hosing my system is just something i don't like doing, so i don't tempt fate by playing in ni.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I don't want to play around with root I just want to install some unix programs. I was about to download Fink at one point, but I think at that time I was about ready to give up on trying to install gimp, AGAIN, trying to find all the different developer's tools. I have installed XCode Tools, and I downloaded and installed some kind of X11 system, even though OSX 10.4 comes with the XDarwin, which most websites said would work for installing gimp or whatever. So, do I need to install fink, or a different X11 server ? What's the deal?
 
1) If you have the Apple X11 installed you'll find it in /Applications/Utilities. If there's no X11.app there, you can post-install it from the Tiger DVD.

2) something seems to have gone wrong with your X11 preferences. They are in ~/Library/Preferences and are called com.apple.x11.plist and com.apple.x11.plist.TMP . Delete these two files.

3) Tiger doesn't come with XDarwin. That's another 3rd party project from when Apple didn't have an X11. XDarwin and OroborOSX were X11 clients at that time. Forget about them. They are completely dated and haven't been updated since Apple got their X11 act together. If you've got either XDarwin or OroborOSX installed, get rid of them and use the Apple X11 instead.

4) fink doesn't actually install an X11 but uses the Apple X11.

5) if fixing the above doesn't help, I'll want to see the output of this command: ls -al ~/\.*

6) if you originally installed the Apple X11 but have since installed either XDarwin or OroborOSX we'll have to re-install Apple X11.
In Finder delete these:
/Applications/Utilities/X11.app
/Library/Receipts/X11User.pkg
From Terminal delete these:
/usr/X11R6
/private/etc/X11/rstart/commands/x11r6
Then re-install Apple X11 from the Tiger DVD
 
1) It wasn't installed, or at least not in applications/utilities/
2) the plist files weren't there, but there is one now that I installed x11
3) ok
4) so I don't need to do anything with fink?
5) that command just displayed my trash, which is mostly a bunch of mp3s, what are you looking for?
6) I never installed XDarwin, xdarwin was already installed on my system, but I re-installed x11 now

So here's what's happening now, X11 actually loads with an xterm and file menus, and Gimp still does the same thing, it loads but the only menu option is to quit. Do I need to open gimp from xterm?
 
I just closed X11, and then re-opened it and then when I loaded Gimp, it started installing and it works!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
starboardman said:
where's a good place to get more .dmg files with unix programs that have been ported to mac for x11?
Click to expand...

If I were you the next thing I'd be doing is getting your machine's root and nobody accounts sorted out.

I'd be leery of installing more and more stuff onto a machine with a wonky O/S.
 
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