Gnome on HPUX 11.11, Home directories relocation

[Robert Hish_1]

I have a B2000 with hpux 11.11 installed, patched, updated, good to go. I installed gnome and mozilla and a few other desktop things. Since its a home use workstation i often use root to do things. However, i noticed with the root acount the home folder is /, not /root or /home/root. which means that when i logged into gnome with root account it put all the .gnome type dirs right on the / directory. this is annoying.

so i tried editing the .profile to add a home directory. i chose /root, which is basically what my bsd boxes do. this worked, kinda. root account now uses /root as its home directory, but it went overboard in this assumption. root started recreating everything that is under / in the new /root folder. it created an /etc dir and filled it with etc type files, it created a few other directories as well.

is there a way of telling root that its home folder is /root without having root try and recreate the whole environment under /root.

basically all i wanted to do was have all the account specific files/folders operating in /root and not in /
but i think i confused the whole darn issue.

okey, now that i think about it, this whole message is confusing.

maybe someone out there understands what i mean and knows how to correct this.

okey, thanks for yer help

robert

p.s. yes i have read the docs online, yes i have read the faq yes i have read this AND that, and still i would like to ask my question here :)

[Michael Tully · Accepted solution]

Basically all you need do is to have /root listed in the passwd file and move all files pertaining to the account to there. Here is an example of the entry in /etc/passwd

root:CQO.VdfuxEHw2:0:3::/root:/sbin/sh

These are the names normally expected to be seen in /root

root@beaver:/home/tullymi 187 # ls /root
.WindU .lsof_dalprd1 Mail
.elm .profile .exrc .sh_history mbox

Don't worry I've seen confusing messages, even respond with even more confusing answers ;^)

[Robert Hish_1]

thanks for the confidence booster :) sometimes these forums can be mordah! heh

okey, im trying your plan now. the only thing ill have to do extra is move all the .gnome etc etc directories to root also.

will changing / to /root in the passwd file effect the entire account? gnome, mozilla, everybody will know to use /root instead of / now?

okey, thanks much for your help

robert

[Robert Hish_1]

oops, another quick question, just to be sure

are there any files/directories i should leave behind or link back to / ?

i just deleted all the ones that are automatically recreated under /root at login by gnome
.g*
.nautilus
.sw
.Xauthority
and some others that i believe are gnome related

also, the .profile, should i leave this at / or move it to /root or link it or ?

thanks again

Robert

[Michael Tully]

Hi again Robert,

The .sw and .Xauthority and .profile can certainly be moved to /root

I have no idea what .nautilus is ? Is that something from Life Of Brian perhaps (nautius maximus ...)

Regards
Michael

[Robert Hish_1]

nautilus is the gnome filemanager behemoth. heh

okey, i think i got it all straightened out, and it hasnt started rebuildin the whole darn environment yet, so i think im good.

thanks for your guidance

robert