Thursday, May 26, 2011

How to access a directory as root/Super user in Linux?

In debian Linux if you are logged in as a ordinary(lower previleged user), then you cant access all the directories in the filesystem. Becayse if tge security restrictions. So, if you want to access a particular directory which needs the higher privelege(say /root) you have 2 choices.

1. By Terminal
Just open the terminal by
1) Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
or
2) alt + f2 -> type "gnome-terminal"(witout quotes) & hit enter key

Now change yourself as root by issuing the command $su root & corresponding Password and access the directory what you want.

2. By GUI(using Nautilus)
Right click the directory which you want to access as super/root user. Then select the option "open as administrator".

Now it prompts you for the Admin(Root) password then it open that directory as a root user. so, now you can access all the files with read,write, execute permission.

Note: For getting the option "open as administrator" your system must installed the package "nautilus-gksu". If not install it first with the following command '$sudo apt-get install nautilus-gksu'(use without quotes,dollar symbol)

Note:(Am using BOSS Linux - a famous indian distro based on Debian developed by CDAC).

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Want to see What happens during system bootup(Linux) & startup services/scripts

1. While booting the system boot it in single user mode.
i.e press ctrl+alt+f1 <- if you have any problem to see the terminal(No GUI splash image) with messages and informations do the following
Note:
In BOSS linux one can see the background startup services and their messages by pressing the F2 key
during startup of the system(i.e during the 'Splash image with boss logo' loaded)

2. While booting select the OS, in which you want to login using up/down arrow now press 'e'. It leads you to the grub menu and now you can edit the
booting options. So now we want to see the messages from the startup services for that just remove the phrase 'splash VGA=xyz quiet'. Then press "ctrl+x" to boot the system. By doing this we are just denying the splash image to load. So we can see the startup services and their messages.

Note: If the messages runs fast and moves in a flash, then just add 'sleep 50' in the startup script (those scripts in /etc/init.d/*) which you want to monitor.