user(s) question

[rikona]

Hello Tom,

Saturday, September 25, 2010, 11:49:13 AM, Tom wrote:

TH> On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 11:41 PM, rikona <rikona at sonic.net> wrote:
>>
>> When I set up Ub, it asked for a user name. It seems that that user
>> has su privileges. I'd like to use that name as a non-su user for
>> normal logins. If it was RRR, can I change it to RRRadmin, for
>> example, keeping the same UserID and privileges, and add another
>> non-su user named RRR? Or - is it better to just add RRRadmin as
>> administrator, and set RRR as a normal user?
>>
>> I assume RRR is not root, but it didn't ask for a root pw. [Also, I
>> have a rtkit group - I hope it's not what it sounds like... :-) ]
>>
>> RRR would have a modest, but pretty good password, and RRRadmin would
>> have a very good pw - but - not one I'd like to have to keep entering
>> with lots of sudo's. Is there a way, while logged on as RRR, to fire
>> up a terminal as RRRadmin, become su, do the tasks as needed, and exit
>> terminal?
>>
>> I copied about 200+G of files to the new Ub, and added an old 1T data
>> disk, but they had the old UserID from Mandriva [but the same RRR
>> name]. In trying to reset them[with sudo], I got a 'can't do it' msg
>> for some files. Is there a way to ID which files have a 'strange' ID
>> that I can't change in a mass-change operation, or something that
>> would force the change anyway?

TH> There are no usable su-to-root rights on a default Ubuntu install.
TH> root is disabled by default and the first user who is set up (at
TH> install time) has full admin rights by default (or as full as you can
TH> get without being root).

TH> There was a recent thread about renaming a user where, I think, the
TH> conclusion was that you had to enable root temporarily and boot into
TH> runlevel 1 in order to rename a user (or at least the first admin
TH> user).

TH> So you can enable root, boot into runlevel 1, rename RRR to RRRadmin,
TH> reboot, disbale root, and create a non-admin RRR.

The name is handy but not really THAT important, and as a new
non-expert, I might take the easier way. :-) I've added a couple more
users as 'user' and 'full admin', and change the 1st-user password
quality to improve security. But - I DO appreciate the info as to how
to change it. When I get a bit more familiarity I might decide to do
it [still a UB newbie...].

Thanks,

 rikona