Other account on log in screen

adirksadirks
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
hi All,



i was a bit eager with the Shared entry in System Preferences,

turned on Internet.

now i have on the log in screen (there where the

multiple users can click on their icon to log in) an

entry indicated by Other.

i cannot seem to get rid of this. and idea how to let

this one disappear again? needless to see turning

all options in Shared doesn't work.



cheers!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Have you enabld the root user at some time? If so, that "other" option will show up. It is unrelated to the options in the sharing pane.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    adirksadirks Posts: 36member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Brad

    Have you enabld the root user at some time? If so, that "other" option will show up. It is unrelated to the options in the sharing pane.



    yep, definately root'ed myself onto the system.



    i only su in command line, so is there a way to get rid of this

    Other user in the front login panel, seems rather superflious.



    cheers!
  • Reply 3 of 7
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    Applications > Utilities> NetInfo Manager



    In the Security menu, Disable Root User



    If it says Enable Root User... we have a problem...
  • Reply 4 of 7
    adirksadirks Posts: 36member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Overhope

    Applications > Utilities> NetInfo Manager



    In the Security menu, Disable Root User



    If it says Enable Root User... we have a problem...



    so, can you have root access enabled and not get this

    Other screen on the login panel? would be nice, definately

    don't see why you would want a root account with all the

    GUI stuff ...? then again, some would say you don't need

    to enable su since you can do most (all?) with sudo.



    cheers!
  • Reply 5 of 7
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by adirks

    so, can you have root access enabled and not get this

    Other screen on the login panel? would be nice, definately

    don't see why you would want a root account with all the

    GUI stuff ...? then again, some would say you don't need

    to enable su since you can do most (all?) with sudo.



    You actually should never "need" root access. If you need root access from the terminal, you can use "sudo" in front of your commands to run that command as the super user. If you want a shell as root or the super user, simply enter "sudo -s".



    You should never ever ever use the root user to log into the GUI. There are just too many possible things that can go bad. The biggest thing that people do accidentally (actually, the Finder does it invisibly) that can cause problems is changing window settings. Ever since the Public Beta, there have been several threads that crop up from people complaining about a Finder "bug" that would make folders "forget" the window settings and make icons jump around. What actually happened in 99% of these cases was the user ran the Finder once as root, set some things, moved some things, and then exited and logged in as the regular user. When running as the root user, the Finder stored that info in the .DS_Store files owned by the root user. When the user logged in as a regular user, the Finder could not overwrite those .DS_Store files because they were owned by root. Thus, the settings would not stay.



    Of course, then there are all the security issues involved with running root like apps wreaking havoc on places they normally wouldn't have permission (such as the /System folder or the other directories in /Users).



    So, in short, disable root asap! Everything you would need to run as root in the terminal can just as easily be run with "sudo" (assuming your user is an administrator of the machine).



    HTH
  • Reply 6 of 7
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Brad

    You should never ever ever use the root user to log into the GUI. There are just too many possible things that can go bad. The biggest thing that people do accidentally (actually, the Finder does it invisibly) that can cause problems is changing window settings. Ever since the Public Beta, there have been several threads that crop up from people complaining about a Finder "bug" that would make folders "forget" the window settings and make icons jump around. What actually happened in 99% of these cases was the user ran the Finder once as root, set some things, moved some things, and then exited and logged in as the regular user. When running as the root user, the Finder stored that info in the .DS_Store files owned by the root user. When the user logged in as a regular user, the Finder could not overwrite those .DS_Store files because they were owned by root. Thus, the settings would not stay.



    I was one.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    mac the forkmac the fork Posts: 722member
    I don't understand UNIX permissions, since I hardly ever use them. So I'm wondering why the Finder doesn't give all accounts permission to modify DS_Store, or write their own DS_Stores.



    Also, does the sudoers file in OS X come preconfigured (I suppose it would)? I had to log in as root on Linux to be able to sudo with my regular account.
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