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Unit 4: Configuring Desktop

notes

Task Write the steps to add the user account.

params for user accounts

The Params are used for password and account management. By default, all of the settings are
Ignored, so they are unused. Must keep # days sets a minimum number of days for a user’s
password.
The Must change after # days field can be set to make a user’s password expire after a certain
number of days. If you want to warn them that the password is going to expire, the Warn # days
before expiration field should be used.
If you’d like to have their account set to expire after a certain number of days, use the Account
expire after # days field. You could alternatively set an Expiration date.

privileges for user accounts

In the Privileges section, you can grant access and/or control over various aspects of system
configuration. As a default, regular users are denied all privileges on this screen. You may instead
choose to grant or to silently grant them specific privileges. The difference between Granted
and Granted/silent is that if the privilege is granted, Linuxconf will ask for the user’s password
before allowing them the privilege. If the privilege is granted silently, Linuxconf will not prompt
for their password.
Generally, careful system administrators won’t grant users any system configuration privileges
unless it is absolutely necessary. If you do grant privileges, be careful when granting them
silently. If a user with silently granted privileges logs into his/her machine and walks away,
their privileges are wide open for the next person who sits down at their desk. Silently granted
privileges are less risky if used on machines in a physically restricted area.
May use Linuxconf: The user is allowed to access all of Linuxconf’s capabilities, and they can set
up or change linuxconf parameters. Note that use of linuxconf is separate from the privilege of
activating configuration changes. System administrators might want to grant the use of Linuxconf,
but deny the activation privilege, so that the sysadmin has a final “yes/no” on whether to activate
any configuration changes.
May activate config changes: After you change a parameter in Linuxconf, at some point you’ll
have to indicate to Linuxconf that the changes you made should be applied. Depending upon
the flavor of Linuxconf that you’re using, you might do this by choosing File => Act/Changes
from the pulldown menu in the GUI version of Linuxconf, or clicking on an Accept button in
Web-based Linuxconf, or selecting an Accept button in text-mode Linuxconf, etc.
You can grant the privilege of activating changes to a user. In that case, the user will be able to
activate any changed system configuration parameters in Linuxconf.
May shutdown: A user can be granted the right to shutdown the system. Note that Red Hat
Linux is set in /etc/inittab to cleanly shutdown following the [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[Del] keystroke
combination.
You can also grant the user the privileges to switch network modes, to view system logs, and
even give someone superuser equivalence.
Once you have entered the login name and any other desired information, select the Accept button
at the bottom of the screen. If you decide against creating a new user, select Cancel instead.

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