unable to access GUI by root login in fedora 9

[Rajeev131]

hi ,

when i am trying login through root on fedora 9. its again comeback to the same login window. when i trying to login normal user then its ok.

can you please suggest the troubleshooting step

[Matti_Kurkela]

That's normal behavior for Fedora 9.

Direct root logins to the GUI desktop have been disabled to discourage bad administration habits.

If you're the only user of the system *AND* the system is not and will not be connected to the Internet in any way, it *might* be reasonable to re-enable GUI root logins.

If you've used to always using root for everything, it most likely means you haven't really learned how to use user groups, file permissions and sudo effectively. You should set up your system so that you can do as much as possible of your "normal work" with your regular, personal user account.

If your system is under a strict auditability requirement (like bank or credit card company systems), then it is an *absolute requirement* that all important system changes can be reliably associated to a named person: "who-did-what". In such an environment, "just quickly logging in as root to fix this" gets the company into trouble with the auditors, and eventually gets you fired.

If every Unix/Linux sysadmin would learn to do things the right way by default, then the future sysadmins in security-sensitive locations would hopefully be less likely to make any stupid security mistakes.



If you still want to do it, you should learn how the authenticatin system works. If you know that, re-enabling root logins can be done easily in less than two minutes.

Google this: "PAM configuration".

MK

[Michal Kapalka (mikap) · Accepted solution]

hi,

check this link :

http://www.labtestproject.com/using_linux/step_by_step_enable_root_login_on_fedora_11_gui_desktop.html

mikap

[Rajeev131]

hi,

thanks

this link is really helpful. but i have fedora 9 operating system. when i checked /etc/pam.d/gdm then find that there is no

# auth required pam_succeed_if.so user != root quiet

file available and also there is no gdm_password file in fedora 9.

please see the current gdm file


1 #%PAM-1.0
2 auth [success=done ignore=ignore default=bad] pam_selinux_permit.so
3 auth required pam_env.so
4 auth substack system-auth
5 auth optional pam_gnome_keyring.so
6 account required pam_nologin.so
7 account include system-auth
8 password include system-auth
9 session required pam_selinux.so close
10 session required pam_loginuid.so
11 session optional pam_console.so
12 session required pam_selinux.so open
13 session optional pam_keyinit.so force revoke
14 session required pam_namespace.so
15 session optional pam_gnome_keyring.so auto_start
16 session include system-auth
~

when i tried to login gui through root then its show blank desktop.

can you please look this issue.