First Impressions LTS 20.04

[claydoh]

I come from Chakra where I had a separate pw for root. I like (or am use to) having a command to lock the taskbar. This prevents random errors of removing widgets and the such. It's just another level of security.

You might ask or find out how chakra implement this feature, assuming it is using Plasma.


......and I see that they do. Plasma 5.14, is that correct?

Previous plasma versions used to have a lock desktop option on the right click as it used to be really easy to accidentally move things around etc. Not implemented as a security feature, and never needed a password.

Recent plasma versions have made it harder to have these sorts if accidents, making the "lock desktop" mostly unnecessary.

However one can lock the desktop in the old manner via two options:

https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/Tips#lock-widgets

I hope this is more what you are looking for.

No password prompt for this, no idea how this would even be implemented.

As to security, I am not seeing how locking widgets makes things more secure? If people have access to the desktop already, moving things around us the last thing to worry about, I would think.


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[DoYouKubuntu]

I come from Chakra where I had a separate pw for root.

I've used Kubuntu as my default distro since version 5.04--and I've ALWAYS had a separate root password AND the ability to log in as root.

The other day, soon after installing 20.04 on my new laptop, I created a root password. I'm very old-school UNIX, and this whole 'sudo' thing doesn't suit me. I su - to root, then do as I please, without silly sudo preceding everything.

Staff: is it illegal here to post how to do this? I hope not. This isn't window$, after all, and its users should be able to control their own computers!

I like (or am use to) having a command to lock the taskbar. This prevents random errors of removing widgets and the such. It's just another level of security.

Easily fixable, if you're interested. Things have changed a lot since I last needed to prevent stuff like that, so I'll need help explaining it correctly; if @claydoh's suggestions aren't to your liking, let me know.

[claydoh]

Staff: is it illegal here to post how to do this? I hope not. This isn't window$, after all, and its users should be able to control their own computers!

Not illegal, just not a good thing to promote, and highly frowned upon (ish) The instructions are readily available on Ubuntu's help/wiki sites and is easily discoverable. But people who do this are pretty much on their own. Many of us can't really help when something goes awry from doing this., mainly as we don't have experience fixing such mucking-ups. Sure, people can control things how they want, but it doesn't mean the rest of us are going to be able to help, or want to help with something that breaks a thing that sort of is part of the core of a distro. There are others to use in this case.

I su - to root, then do as I please, without silly sudo preceding everything

Completely.

100%.

Unnecessary.

Who needs to do that?

Absolutely noone:

[FONT=monospace][/FONT]claydoh@claydoh-Pavilion590[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#5454ff][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ sudo su [/COLOR]
[sudo] password for claydoh:  
root@claydoh-Pavilion590:/home/claydoh# [COLOR=#ff0000][B]./me-doing-whatever-I-please.sh[/B][/COLOR]
[/FONT]

I myself was dubious about this novel sudo thing, but that was in 2005. Then I actually tried it for a day.

[DoYouKubuntu]

I don't like sudo and haven't from day one. But different strokes, you know?

My new laptop is now pretty much functioning as I want, including being able to log in as root. In practice, I do that...maybe...once or twice a year? But knowing I can do it if need be is very reassuring to me.

@claydoh, I totally get where you're coming from. You're absolutely right that someone with root privileges can royally muck up a computer--and may not have the skills to fix it. I've gone back through some of my old threads looking for refreshers on how to do various things--and you know what hit me? I sounded like a pompous ass! That was definitely never my intent...

My point was, and remains, that if *I* hopelessly muck things up, with 35 years of *nix under my belt *I* can fix it. I never assume the same is true for other people, so I make sure I give them fair--and clear!--warning before they plunge in with root privileges. They need to know they can do everything up to and including bricking the entire computer. But after that, it's up to them to decide what they're capable of--or THINK they're capable of. If they're coming from window$ and consider themselves power users/computer geeks/etc., they may think they have much more ability than they actually do. But, again, that's their call.

[Fred47]

The last update was to Plasma 5.17.3 I played around with the panel settings and I do see now how it's a bit more tamper proof. Maybe secure wasn't the correct term to use. Sorry if that confused anyone.

Development of Chakra has slowed and so I'm here. I chose Kubuntu mostly because of the large developer base with Ubuntu. I'm getting use to the Ubuntu ways, but I still miss Chakra. Heck I still miss Mepis which was my first reliable distro. There were a few in bewteen I don't care to remember.

[GreyGeek]

Before I moved to Kubuntu in Jan of 2009, and joined this forum at the same time, I had tried several distros, mostly RPM based. From Sept of 1998 till Nov 2002 I used SuSE. Between 2002 and 2009 many: KNOPPIX, KANOTIX, Mandrake, Mandriva, Mepis, PCLinuxOS (which are excellent distros), and dozens that came off my drive quicker than the time it took to install them. ALL of them were chosen because I could select KDE as desktop environment.

Kubuntu focused on KDE better than any of them, IMO, with the exception of Neon. Since I added BTRFS to my list of requirements the way Kubuntu/Ubuntu handles subvolumes is better than any other I've tried. And it allowed me to merge @home with @ to make just a single subvolume for my entire system. Snapshotting is falling off a log easy. So is reverting to a previous snapshot. At this point I can't see a single distro, with perhaps the exception of Neon, to which I could move.