[TAG] (forw) Re: (forw) Re: (forw) Re: lpr works for user not root in Basiclinux 2.1

[Sindi Keesan]

On Mon, 29 Jan 2007, Thomas Adam wrote:

> [ Hopefully I haven't completely messed up attribution. ]
>
> On Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 04:21:21PM -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
>> ----- Forwarded message from Sindi Keesan <keesan at grex.cyberspace.org> -----
>>
>> I mentioned a while ago that I had clones of the same linux on several
>> computers so I am not concerned about accidentally wiping out files.
>
> That depends on the files you backup, and how you clone them.  There are
> various filesystems out there which operate in this way to do just that.

cp -a /hda1/* /hdc1

ext2

Is there something more suitable for copying 500-1000MB of files?  I tried 
dd between identical drives, with bs=64k or larger.

I spend time in three places, have 2-3 computers with the same software at 
each place, and keep anything I need to access online at a shell account 
where I do not have root privileges.

The computers are all free because our friends need newer ones for 
Windows.  We are setting up linux/Opera for other friends on 500MB drives, 
when their 20GB XP drive dies.  I will set them up as user for added 
security.

>> And from what various people have told me one cannot hack my system if I
>> have no network daemons running and X only has local access and Opera has
>> no vulnerabilities.  And chkrootkit found nothing after four years.   So
>> it is not obvious.  I am not trying to be intentionally stupid.

> Well, the X11 issue comes down to access control (see 'man xhost').  And
> it's still a bogus comment since it's not so much access control that's
> the issue, as it is having the program run as user root in the first
> place.
>
> Take for example, a copy of gvim.  Guess what happens if that's started
> as root.

I have never heard of gvim before.  I compiled busybox vi but have not 
learned to use it.  I use pico in console mode and am trying to learn to 
write simple rtf, maybe by changing the keycodes for the function keys so 
F1 is bold-on and F2 is bold-off, etc., to avoid needing X at all.  I 
could not find a console wordprocessor for linux, and wordperfect and VDE 
don't work correctly in dosemu or qemu.

If I do have to use Opera, does it matter whether I load X and dial as 
root or user before using Opera as user?

Thanks to all of you for the helpful ideas.

> -- Thomas Adam
>
> -- 
> "Wanting to feel; to know what is real.  Living is a lie." -- Purpoise
> Song, by The Monkees.
>

Sindi Keesan