Looking for a distro

[Woodzman]

Hello; I am looking for a linux distro, that will allow,me to log in
as root. I am aware of the risks and have read most of the
advice that discourages this, however I want to be able to do this, not like ubuntu which only lets you believe you are logged in as root. Why do i want this? Simple,I want to be in control
of my computer, as much as is possible. If this in fact can't be done, please say so, I don't need more advice and more web links that don't work.

I have tried 10-15 different distro's so far, mostly Debian or
ubuntu based, no luck. I am not newbie, but not advanced either. Thanks for looking

[oz]

I am looking for a linux distro, that will allow,me to log in
as root.

I have tried 10-15 different distro's so far, mostly Debian or
ubuntu based, no luck. I am not newbie, but not advanced either. Thanks for looking

Hello and welcome to the forums!

So far as I know, all distros can be logged into as root. I'm not familiar with any that don't allow root logins at all. There are some that by default don't allow users to log into the GUI desktop as root user, but even then there are workarounds for those cases.

[Woodzman]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

So far as I know, all distros can be logged into as root. I'm not familiar with any that don't allow root logins at all. There are some that by default don't allow users to log into the GUI desktop as root user, but even then there are workarounds for those cases.

This is what I thought, but this is far from the reality, and believe me I've tried, even logged into the terminal as root has resulted in 'permission denied'. There is absolutely an actual root account and you or i as a user even as administrator, are not root.
We are only allowed root privileges to the parameters set by the actual root, it is becoming painfully clear that in linux, the user does not
own or control the OS. Root does. But please, don't take my word for it, follow the instructions on some of the many web sites as I
have done. I believe the results will shock you. I don't have enough posts to attach links, or I would. But thank you for the reply.

[oz]

This is what I thought, but this is far from the reality, and believe me I've tried, even logged into the terminal as root has resulted in 'permission denied'.

I run Arch Linux currently, and as a test, I just now logged out as user on this machine, then logged right back in, but as root user. No problem whatsoever here. That's the first time I've logged in as root user in probably 8 years or more because I'm in full control of my machine without having to ever login as root user, so it will probably be that long or longer before I do it again, but to each their own.

Good luck to you with your efforts...

[MikeTbob]

Gentoo allows root logins but will not allow root logins to Xorg. At least that's how I remember it, I'm not willing to test that either.

@ OP : is there something you are trying to accomplish besides login to a desktop with root? I think puppy Linux runs as root all the time.

Sent from my SPH-D710VMUB using Tapatalk 2

[Woodzman]

I run Arch Linux currently, and as a test, I just now logged out as user on this machine, then logged right back in, but as root user. No problem whatsoever here. That's the first time I've logged in as root user in probably 8 years or more because I'm in full control of my machine without having to ever login as root user, so it will probably be that long or longer before I do it again, but to each their own.

Good luck to you with your efforts...

Thank you,
I suspected that if it was possible, it would probably be arch.

[oz]

Puppy Linux did run as root user by default the last time I booted it, but then I guess most if not all liveCDs run as root user by default. As noted earlier, I'm not aware of any Linux distribution that doesn't allow root logins.

To do root logins with Gnome, it used to be that you edited the following display manager files:

/etc/pam.d/gdm
/etc/pam.d/gdm-password

For KDE, the following display manager file had to be edited:

/etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc

Don't know if any of that might have changed, but I would have no reason to edit any of those files since I've never had any good reason to login as root user. I remain in full control of all my boxes without logging in as root user, and still loving it!

[Woodzman]

Gentoo allows root logins but will not allow root logins to Xorg. At least that's how I remember it, I'm not willing to test that either.

@ OP : is there something you are trying to accomplish besides login to a desktop with root? I think puppy Linux runs as root all the time.

Sent from my SPH-D710VMUB using Tapatalk 2

Thank you, and yes I have a purpose,I will try to be brief.
Using ubuntu, i often got messages as access denied, permission
denied, etc. This in regard to opening files mainly. upon further
exploring i would find things like, these files were owned by , or
I did not have permission to change,edit ,etc.

Naturally, I thought,if i as the owner and operator of
my computer does not have this permission, who does?
Answer; Root, and i am not root nor are you , perhaps at your skill level though you probably have much more
movement allowed as you can utilize the authority allowed
to a much greater degree. Yes I can be logged into the
terminal as root, but that still only gives limited control.

I can change ownership of files using the chown command,
still unable to edit or effect real change. With all the info I
have read about damaging the system as root, i ask how?
I can't even begin to get that close, not that i want to, but
if i could at least i would know i was in control of my computer
and not vice- versa. I hope you gather from this brief
summation my interest in this topic and Thank you again for
your time.

[yancek]

A regular user should have access to directories/files in his or her /home/user directory. However, if you copy a directory/file from outside to your /home/user directory as root, that directory/file will be 'owned' by root and root can change ownership permisssions.
Anything outside the /home/user directory is accessible generally by root. It is possible to create directories/files which are not accessible even by root but that's outside the scope.
If you are getting permission denied after changing ownership of a directory/file then it is likely a sub-directory of a directory which you do not have ownership of as a regular user. Some basic reading on the Linux filesystem hierarchy might help.
Logging in to a terminal as root does give complete control.
Given what you want to do, you might try Puppy as it is root all the time.

[Woodzman]

A regular user should have access to directories/files in his or her /home/user directory. However, if you copy a directory/file from outside to your /home/user directory as root, that directory/file will be 'owned' by root and root can change ownership permisssions.
Anything outside the /home/user directory is accessible generally by root. It is possible to create directories/files which are not accessible even by root but that's outside the scope.
If you are getting permission denied after changing ownership of a directory/file then it is likely a sub-directory of a directory which you do not have ownership of as a regular user. Some basic reading on the Linux filesystem hierarchy might help.
Logging in to a terminal as root does give complete control.
Given what you want to do, you might try Puppy as it is root all the time.

All live CD's are root, since you cannot write changes to it, it is a mute point.

Logging in as root, does not make you root, it gives you elevated privileges allowed by root. There is a physical root account
probably UID 0 ,No other account has this ID, not even your Admin account. Note in my original post, I said "as much control
as is possible" I realize total control is not possible. Perhaps you don't realize this.