Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 29 Apr 2004 13:33:11 +0100
From:      Richard Bradley <rtb27@cam.ac.uk>
To:        killermink@hotmail.com
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   RE: Permissions and other questions..
Message-ID:  <200404291333.11890.rtb27@cam.ac.uk>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> These may be immensly stupid questions, but here goes anyway, I have put=
=20
> them all into one mail as I don't think they singularily deserve a whole=
=20
> mail...

I don't know about stupid - these are quite sensible questions. Lazy perhap=
s=20
=2D- most of these can be answered by google (or by experimentation).

> 1) Is it desirable and how do you enable certain processes to be run in a=
=20
> user account?

You can use `su` as root - in fact you can su into any account without usin=
g a=20
password, such is the power of root ;-)

> Here is why, I am the only user of my machine and while I realise the=20
> importance of root, if i want to mount a cd I always have to su. =A0This =
is=20
> the same for other processes such as ifconfig. =A0As the only user I don'=
t=20
> want to have to su all the time to do simple things, and as not being use=
d=20
> to it, I sometimes forget I have done so and do things undesirable (e.,g.=
=20
> startx as root).

How often do you need to run ifconfig? If you manage to get automount worki=
ng=20
(see below) you should have no excuse not to run as a normal user

> 2) Is there a way to automount? =A0Like when I put in a CD or attach my U=
SB
> drive.. as they have the same command each time.

umm - I'm not going to answer this one. The simple answer is that the very=
=20
first result for a google search on "automount freebsd" gives a detailed=20
tutorial on how to set this up on a FreeBSD box. Searching is quicker than=
=20
waiting for email replies, you know.

> 3) Is it possible to have the command prompt tell you what directory you =
are
> in before the symbol?

Again, the first result on google for "change prompt string csh" is a long=
=20
tutorial on changing the title bar of xterms or something. Anyway, I skimme=
d=20
through it and to get you started, at your console, type:

alias precmd 'echo -n "$cwd"'

You should be able to customise this to suit your own needs.

> 4) Is there a way in XFCE to create a launcher for OpenOffice? =A0I under=
stand
> it needs to be run with ./soffice but this doesn't work even tho I have=20
> added the directory to my PATH

I don't even know what XFCE is, so try Google for this one, or wait for=20
someone on the mailing list to try Google for you ;-)

> Thanks for the advice...

Have fun!


Rich



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200404291333.11890.rtb27>