id:5:initdefault: permission denied. . as root?

tommycomeau · #1 13th February 2010, 01:29 AM

I installed fedora 11 on an old laptop, and want to disable the gui so I have to work straight from the command line. (This machine is only for learning

I login, fire up a script and enter:

[tommy@localhost ~]$ /etc/inittab
bash: /etc/inittab: Permission denied

[tommy@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost tommy]# /etc/inittab
bash: /etc/inittab: Permission denied

Why would my permission to edit the id:5:initdefault: be denied when I am trying to edit the file as root/su?

Thanks!

stoat · #2 13th February 2010, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommycomeau

I login, fire up a script and enter:

[tommy@localhost ~]$ /etc/inittab
bash: /etc/inittab: Permission denied

[tommy@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost tommy]# /etc/inittab
bash: /etc/inittab: Permission denied

Why would my permission to edit the id:5:initdefault: be denied when I am trying to edit the file as root/su?

Hello tommycomeau,

You need to open that file with an editor. Examples...

Code:

su
gedit /etc/inittab

Code:

su
vi /etc/inittab

Code:

su
nano /etc/inittab

jenaniston · #3 13th February 2010, 03:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommycomeau

I installed fedora 11 on an old laptop, and want to disable the gui so I have to work straight from the command line. . . .

to an editor like vi . . .

Code:

[tommy@localhost ~]$ su -
[root@localhost ~]# cd /
[root@localhost /]# vi /etc/inittab

But why set up to always start up and run in text mode . . . ?

A very nice part about Fedora, if you are in terminal you can just change to the runlevel 3 . . .
that is not the same in Debian/Ubuntu where only runlevel 2 is used for both text mode and GUI.

Code:

# init 3

gets a black and white terminal screen - no GUI

Note . . . # init 5 may get you back to runlevel 5 if you have already booted to it . . . or a command like # gdm . . . I'm not positive.

smr54 · #4 13th February 2010, 03:35 AM

Why start in a GUI? Text mode gives more flexibility. If there are troubles with video cards--look around these forums for all the people who can't boot, and ONLY because they start in GUI mode.

Uses fewer resources--remove the rhgb quiet, and you can see what's going on while booting, which can be handy for troubleshooting.

The vast majority apparently prefer GUI mode, but you'll find, especially if you start digging more into the internals, that text mode can have many advantages. For example, as I boot into text mode, the only reason I knew about that whole root login issue was through these forums. It didn't affect me.

To the OP, however--be aware that Fedora and some of the other desktop distros, tie some of the networking and other functions to the GUI. Hopefully, you're already aware of that and know how to work around it.

@jenaniston (great nick, by the way, loved ya in Office Space, and don't worry, Brad wasn't good enough for you anyway), typing init 3 to get to console is fine, but.... see my first paragraph, often, due to various video card issues, sometimes, someone can't get into GUI mode, and the init 5 default can prevent them from getting into the system.

tommycomeau · #5 13th February 2010, 03:38 AM

well I'd be happy to have everyone's opinion but my thoughts on disabling the gui:

I dont have any programming experience and grew up on all windows machines, so I thought disabling the GUI would force me to work from the command line and thus, I can teach myself some basic linux..

jenaniston · #6 13th February 2010, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smr54

Why start in a GUI? Text mode gives more flexibility. If there are troubles with video cards--look around these forums for all the people who can't boot, and ONLY because they start in GUI mode.

Uses fewer resources--remove the rhgb quiet, and you can see what's going on while booting, which can be handy for troubleshooting.
. . .
To the OP, however--be aware that Fedora and some of the other desktop distros, tie some of the networking and other functions to the GUI. Hopefully, you're already aware of that and know how to work around it.

. . .typing init 3 to get to console is fine, but.... see my first paragraph, often, due to various video card issues, sometimes, someone can't get into GUI mode, and the init 5 default can prevent them from getting into the system.

I totally agree . . .

the OP seemed though to be having some problem with editing . . .
and getting into root with permissions.

As they were already in a command terminal in runlevel 5 and wanting to get into 3,
I just thought # init 3 was an easy, albeit temporary, way . . .
but only as long as they are hopefully in Fedora . . . it is a simple option some lesser distros just do not have.

I am wrong about it being so easy to get back to GUI - that I dunno.

But my F12 KDE USB Live - after I did the init 3 and then shutdown by command

Code:

# shutdown -h now

then of course booted back up to the full KDE plasma workspace desktop and runlevel 5 -
as my initialization files were never changed.

Yes, learning linux from the terminal will be very good. You can still do that from the terminal in the gui as well -
at least make the background color of the terminal easier on the eyes -
but whatever works best . . . the option is yours in linux and fedora.

smr54 · #7 13th February 2010, 04:55 AM

Hrm, it should be easy to get back to the GUI. In the later versions of Fedora, you should be able to get out of it with ctl+alt+Fwhatever and back to it with ctl+alt+F1---if not F1, then F7. In theory F1, but I haven't found that to be consistent. Nor have I done much with live CDs.

As you state, yes, the option is still ours.

tommycomeau · #8 13th February 2010, 02:49 PM

thanks for the help all! its fun but man can be frustrating/tricky at the begining. .=)

smr54 · #9 13th February 2010, 04:35 PM

It can be frustrating, but after awihle, it starts to make sense. One good start, IMHO, is the
very old Installation and Getting Started Guide.

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/gs/node1.html

Though the installation section is very dated, the getting started part has some nice things to help the beginner get used to the shell.

Start at section 3, Linux Tutorial. (For example, some of the installation sections are for distributions that no longer exist, such as Caldera.)

tommycomeau · #10 14th February 2010, 08:42 PM

I'm going through the introductory tutorial now. directories and folders, relative vs absolute path, changing directories..

I have a long way to go, but we have to start somewhere!