How to enable/disable root access

[ajaygarg]

Hi all.

I have a XO-1, running kernel 2.6.31_xo. I wish to enable/disable the root access (currently, the root access is enabled).

The normal process of changing the root password using "passwd" doesn't seem to work. If it is tried, the 'olpc' user is able to switch to root, without being asked for the password. The approach works in the "standard" fc14 kernel, though.

Is there a way to do this for the XO kernel, without requiring any change in the kernel code itself?

Looking forward to a reply.


Thanks and Regards,
Ajay

[ektoric]

Do this carefully, obviously, as if you loose root access, you'll be out of luck until you perform a USB clean install (and this only if you have already received the developer key).

As root, run "visudo"
1) Check there isn't a line that allows olpc user to run any command without password
2) Check for any groups that are allowed to run any command without password
2a) Afterwards, check if olpc user is in any of these groups: "vi /etc/groups"

Let us know if this solves your problem!

[ajaygarg]

Hi ektoric. Thanks for the reply.

1. visudo does not contain any line that allows "olpc" user to run any command without password.

2. visudo does contains a line

Code: Select all

<percentage sign>wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

In /etc/group, there is a line

Code: Select all

<percentage sign>wheel:x:10:root,olpc

So, I commented the first line (logged in as root), as

Code: Select all

#<percentage sign>wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Immediately after, I reset the "olpc" and "root" passwords.

and it gave me 50% results :

1. Now, running "sudo <command>" from "olpc" login gives me "olpc not in sudoers file". Fine. Works as expected.

2. However, from "olpc" login, when i do "su -", it does not ask me for a password.

The second case, is as good as not solving the problem at all


What may I look into further?

Looking forward to a reply.

Regards,
Ajay

[ektoric]

2. However, from "olpc" login, when i do "su -", it does not ask me for a password.

What happens if you change the root password?

Code: Select all

olpc $ su -
root # passwd
# set the root user's password
root # exit
olpc $ su -

[Abbysam]

The OLPC uses Open Firmware as the startup firmware. Instead of auto-booting into the Sugar (linux) operating system, you can ESC out into the firmware's environment and perform actions at its "OK" prompt.