My original test user name, John, was created as I installed OpenSUSE
11. Then, I created a test user named Jane.
As I installed my software, when logged in as Jane, it says
that the user Jane doesn't have superuser privileges.

I went to Yast, and set Jane to belong to the group "root".
But the software still says that Jane doesn't have superuser
privileges.

How do I allow user Jane to have superuser privileges on OpenSUSE 11?

anonuserca@yahoo.com wrote:
> My original test user name, John, was created as I installed OpenSUSE
> 11. Then, I created a test user named Jane.
> As I installed my software, when logged in as Jane, it says
> that the user Jane doesn't have superuser privileges.
>
> I went to Yast, and set Jane to belong to the group "root".

Never do that. It's best to undo it right now.


> But the software still says that Jane doesn't have superuser
> privileges.
>
> How do I allow user Jane to have superuser privileges on OpenSUSE 11?

You don't. You give Jane the root password instead.

On Jul 22, 4:01*pm, Nikos Chantziaras <rea...@arcor.de> wrote:
> anonuse...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > My original test user name, John, was created as I installed OpenSUSE
> > 11. *Then, I created a test user named Jane.
> > As I installed my software, when logged in as Jane, it says
> > that the user Jane doesn't have superuser privileges.
>
> > I went to Yast, and set Jane to belong to the group "root".
>
> Never do that. *It's best to undo it right now.
>
> > But the software still says that Jane doesn't have superuser
> > privileges.
>
> > How do I allow user Jane to have superuser privileges on OpenSUSE 11?
>
> You don't. *You give Jane the root password instead.

I logged in as user Jane, I did a "sudo su"
and then, entered in the superuser password.

As root, I installed that software, and then, I got the following
error:

Application initialization failed: no display name and no $DISPLAY
environment variable

Any suggestions how to fix this?

Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>> How do I allow user Jane to have superuser privileges on OpenSUSE 11?
>
> You don't. You give Jane the root password instead.

Or use sudo to use the password of the user and not root.

houghi
--
All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust,
sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.

anonuserca@yahoo.com wrote:
> [...]
> I logged in as user Jane, I did a "sudo su"
> and then, entered in the superuser password.

Use "su" when you need to login as root.

Use "sudo" only when you want to run a program as root.

That means, don't use "sudo su" :) It works, but is not necessary. To
run the installation script of your CAD program (install.sh for
example), you just do: sudo ./install.sh

After the program terminates and you are returned to the shell, you're
still Jane, not root.


> As root, I installed that software, and then, I got the following
> error:
>
> Application initialization failed: no display name and no $DISPLAY
> environment variable
>
> Any suggestions how to fix this?

Yes, run it as Jane, not root. You need root privileges to install
software (because installing software modifies the system), not to use
software. Unless the software itself *requires* you to use it as root
(I doubt it). A very important rule in Unix is: don't run programs as root!

So, to sum it up. If you need to login as root (this is called creating
a "root shell", you type:

su -

To simply run a program as root without actually logging in as root, you
use:

sudo someprogram

for text programs, and:

kdesu someprogram

for graphical programs.

To run a program, forget root. You run it as a normal user (unless the
program itself needs to modify the system in some way, like YaST for
example).