LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Andrew Reid <andrew.reid@plug.cx>
  To  : Peter Georgaras <pgeorgar@bigpond.net.au>
  Date: 24 Apr 2001 12:06:03 +0930

Re: "root" vs. "su"

On 24 Apr 2001 11:50:18 +0930, Peter Georgaras wrote:

> As a bizarre aside to my SCSI and ethernet card problems, I find that I 
> have to log in as "root" rather than "su" from user to perform commands 
> like "lsmod", "insmod", etc.

Not true. You don't 'have to' login as root rather than su at all. Read
bellow.

> When I log in as user then "su" to root, I get "bash <command>: command not 
> found", however logged in as "root" all works as expected.

bash: <command>: command not found simply means that bash could not find
the command <command> in your $PATH. Essentially, for some reason your
PATH goes wierd when you su. Theres two ways to fix it:

1) When you su, run 'export PATH=$PATH:/sbin:/other/dirs'
2) Edit /etc/profile and add '/sbin' to the path statement.

> It seems like a permission's issue to me, but how would I resolve it?  And, 
> I don't seem to recall this being a problem in the past!?  (Have I bumped 
> into something in "linuxconf" that I shouldn't have?)

Just because it won't run, doesn't mean it's a permissions issue. A
permissions issue would look something more like:

bash <command>: Permission Dennied.

   - andrew

-- 
Andrew Reid                   email: andrew.reid@plug.cx
                              www:   http://www.plug.cx
"If ignorance is bliss        phone: +61 401 946 813
 why aren't there more 
 happy people?"


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