i know this'll tick off command-line purists, but if standard admin privileges don't get you where you want, and stuff like "cd /directory/to/file" and "rm -rf filename" seem confusing (don't get me wrong... i just don't "get it" as easily as the way i am used to manipulating files), download the shareware app "pseudo" (http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/pseudo.html), which does the same as the sudo command, but with, in my humble opinion, a more intuitive icons and drag and drop interface. just drag an application on the pseudo window (like the mac os x finder, for example), and run it in super user mode (handy for deleting those files that apps leave behind and that won't leave of their own accord).
i mean, i've been manipulating icons and folders in an operating system since 1992 -- it just makes more sense to me (and there's less of a chance for me, anyway, to delete a file accidentally), when i'm deleting icons and such.
anyway, we seem to be getting a little off-topic here, but just thought i'd try to help for those who are reluctant to delve into the terminal.
Well Steve666, for a person who hates Mexican iMacs and Chinese components, and doesn't even realize Quartz font-rendering is not a "screen-bug," and doesn't realize the OS 9.2.2 update is only downloaded by Software Update and not actually run, I know you are wrong on many occasions.
Why should I blame OS X about the size of an update? That is clearly a choice made by a human being, not formulated be an algorithm in the OS. In the past, Apple has posted segmented updates on the web.
What would be in place of the Finder menu? Do you just want to get rid of the Application menu altogether? I'll say...File-->Quit doesn't really make as much sense as you think it does. I've never filed any of my documents under "Quit."
You will have a hard time ignoring the rules of English too. Adding a needless "go" in front of an action *is* idiomatic. It does work with certain cases, like gerunds...
With the 9.2.2 updater, you were simply confused and wrong.
You can make Finder toolbars text, icon, both....You can drag documents and folders into the toolbar. How much more customizable can it get?
Besides, I only corrected a fraction of your wishlist items.
I will go hit reply now. I will go go to breakfast too.
<strong>Well Steve666, for a person who hates Mexican iMacs and Chinese components, and doesn't even realize Quartz font-rendering is not a "screen-bug," and doesn't realize the OS 9.2.2 update is only downloaded by Software Update and not actually run, I know you are wrong on many occasions.
Why should I blame OS X about the size of an update? That is clearly a choice made by a human being, not formulated be an algorithm in the OS. In the past, Apple has posted segmented updates on the web.
What would be in place of the Finder menu? Do you just want to get rid of the Application menu altogether? I'll say...File-->Quit doesn't really make as much sense as you think it does. I've never filed any of my documents under "Quit."
You will have a hard time ignoring the rules of English too. Adding a needless "go" in front of an action *is* idiomatic. It does work with certain cases, like gerunds...
With the 9.2.2 updater, you were simply confused and wrong.
You can make Finder toolbars text, icon, both....You can drag documents and folders into the toolbar. How much more customizable can it get?
Besides, I only corrected a fraction of your wishlist items.
I will go hit reply now. I will go go to breakfast too.
Hey Eugene, after breakfast maybe you can get a surgeon to remove that stick out of your ass. If you don't have anything intelligent to say (and I'm still waiting for the first one), maybe you should keep your mouth shut like a good little weenie............................................ ..................................
<strong>It seems to me that some people here don't understand what root is in Mac OS X, what it is in other unix systems, why it exists in the first place, why it owns certain things and how to use it.
First of all, root is a user, also known as "system". Root login is disabled by default in OS X. That doesn't mean it's not there, it means it's disabled. The reason root is disabled is because root is the only user with no-holds barred access to every file on the hard drive. Apple decided to disable root because they were able to make everything else work fine for regular admin users. They even gave us the sudo ("super user do") command in Terminal, which lets you execute commands as root, but only for 5 minutes.
I can see how this might be annoying if you don't have a basic understanding of how unix systems work, but trust me - it's for the best that root is disabled by default. Now, if you're the adventurous type and you want to enable and log in as root so you can fiddle with everything, here's how.
Go to /applications/utilities/netinfo manager and open it, go to the Domain menu and select Security. Then choose Authenticate. Enter your admin name and password, then look at the Security menu again. You can now enable root. If you want to log in as root, first log out. Root will not show up with an icon, so make sure you can either hit the "Other user" button or just make sure the login window is only displaying empty name and password fields.
the username is root, the password is whatever your admin password is. But if you log in as root, for God's sake be careful. It's far easier to screw up your OS when tromping around as root in OS X than it ever was in OS 9. I think Apple was perfectly justified in hiding root initially, myself. I have about 600 users where I work, you think root's gonna be enabled on any one of those Macs? Not a chance. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
Anyway, log in as root, have fun, don't come back here asking for help if you delete vital system files. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>
Thanks for this very informative stuff. As you seem to have a good UNIX knowledge I have one simple question. Is it (by some kind of hacking) possible to get rid of admin password prompts when making system changes when you are already logged in as administrator? I don't know but this just doesn't make any sense
Naw, I'm not nearly as unix-savvy as I'd like to be... I don't think I can answer your question. I know what you're saying, but as far as I know it's not possible to get rid of that. Even if you're logged in as root it's still going to ask you for a password.
But as far as I know, this is something that's built into the application's installer, not something that OS X is inherently doing... i.e. it's not just that you don't have permissions to just automatically install the software when you're logged in as an admin - it's simply that the installer software requires confirmation before installing, no matter who you're logged in as.
I guess this is done simply to safeguard against Joe User who for some reason might actually be logged in as an admin and probably shouldn't be installing software. In any case I believe it's at the software developers' discretion to require an admin password before installing.
I don't know if there's a hack for that, but as I said, I ain't no unix genius neither.
OK, i want to add one more...fix the damn eject button! when I press it, the disc in my computer AND the empty tray for my external CDRW drive eject! What a pain!
But I suppose someone's going to come along and tell me it's a feature...
Comments
i mean, i've been manipulating icons and folders in an operating system since 1992 -- it just makes more sense to me (and there's less of a chance for me, anyway, to delete a file accidentally), when i'm deleting icons and such.
anyway, we seem to be getting a little off-topic here, but just thought i'd try to help for those who are reluctant to delve into the terminal.
Why should I blame OS X about the size of an update? That is clearly a choice made by a human being, not formulated be an algorithm in the OS. In the past, Apple has posted segmented updates on the web.
What would be in place of the Finder menu? Do you just want to get rid of the Application menu altogether? I'll say...File-->Quit doesn't really make as much sense as you think it does. I've never filed any of my documents under "Quit."
You will have a hard time ignoring the rules of English too. Adding a needless "go" in front of an action *is* idiomatic. It does work with certain cases, like gerunds...
With the 9.2.2 updater, you were simply confused and wrong.
You can make Finder toolbars text, icon, both....You can drag documents and folders into the toolbar. How much more customizable can it get?
Besides, I only corrected a fraction of your wishlist items.
I will go hit reply now. I will go go to breakfast too.
[ 04-28-2002: Message edited by: Eugene ]</p>
<strong>Well Steve666, for a person who hates Mexican iMacs and Chinese components, and doesn't even realize Quartz font-rendering is not a "screen-bug," and doesn't realize the OS 9.2.2 update is only downloaded by Software Update and not actually run, I know you are wrong on many occasions.
Why should I blame OS X about the size of an update? That is clearly a choice made by a human being, not formulated be an algorithm in the OS. In the past, Apple has posted segmented updates on the web.
What would be in place of the Finder menu? Do you just want to get rid of the Application menu altogether? I'll say...File-->Quit doesn't really make as much sense as you think it does. I've never filed any of my documents under "Quit."
You will have a hard time ignoring the rules of English too. Adding a needless "go" in front of an action *is* idiomatic. It does work with certain cases, like gerunds...
With the 9.2.2 updater, you were simply confused and wrong.
You can make Finder toolbars text, icon, both....You can drag documents and folders into the toolbar. How much more customizable can it get?
Besides, I only corrected a fraction of your wishlist items.
I will go hit reply now. I will go go to breakfast too.
[ 04-28-2002: Message edited by: Eugene ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hey Eugene, after breakfast maybe you can get a surgeon to remove that stick out of your ass. If you don't have anything intelligent to say (and I'm still waiting for the first one), maybe you should keep your mouth shut like a good little weenie............................................ ..................................
<strong>Don't you mean I should go keep my mouth shut?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I stand corrected. There, that was your one intelligent comment......................................
<strong>With any luck, we can avoid reducing this to a simplistic love/hate assesment of the OS. so far so good...</strong><hr></blockquote>
So much for that.
<strong>It seems to me that some people here don't understand what root is in Mac OS X, what it is in other unix systems, why it exists in the first place, why it owns certain things and how to use it.
First of all, root is a user, also known as "system". Root login is disabled by default in OS X. That doesn't mean it's not there, it means it's disabled. The reason root is disabled is because root is the only user with no-holds barred access to every file on the hard drive. Apple decided to disable root because they were able to make everything else work fine for regular admin users. They even gave us the sudo ("super user do") command in Terminal, which lets you execute commands as root, but only for 5 minutes.
I can see how this might be annoying if you don't have a basic understanding of how unix systems work, but trust me - it's for the best that root is disabled by default. Now, if you're the adventurous type and you want to enable and log in as root so you can fiddle with everything, here's how.
Go to /applications/utilities/netinfo manager and open it, go to the Domain menu and select Security. Then choose Authenticate. Enter your admin name and password, then look at the Security menu again. You can now enable root. If you want to log in as root, first log out. Root will not show up with an icon, so make sure you can either hit the "Other user" button or just make sure the login window is only displaying empty name and password fields.
the username is root, the password is whatever your admin password is. But if you log in as root, for God's sake be careful. It's far easier to screw up your OS when tromping around as root in OS X than it ever was in OS 9. I think Apple was perfectly justified in hiding root initially, myself. I have about 600 users where I work, you think root's gonna be enabled on any one of those Macs? Not a chance. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
Anyway, log in as root, have fun, don't come back here asking for help if you delete vital system files. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>
Thanks for this very informative stuff. As you seem to have a good UNIX knowledge I have one simple question. Is it (by some kind of hacking) possible to get rid of admin password prompts when making system changes when you are already logged in as administrator? I don't know but this just doesn't make any sense
But as far as I know, this is something that's built into the application's installer, not something that OS X is inherently doing... i.e. it's not just that you don't have permissions to just automatically install the software when you're logged in as an admin - it's simply that the installer software requires confirmation before installing, no matter who you're logged in as.
I guess this is done simply to safeguard against Joe User who for some reason might actually be logged in as an admin and probably shouldn't be installing software. In any case I believe it's at the software developers' discretion to require an admin password before installing.
I don't know if there's a hack for that, but as I said, I ain't no unix genius neither.
But I suppose someone's going to come along and tell me it's a feature...