(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Okay I discovered Linux yesterday, Puppy Linux today. So apparently, there's this restricted user named Spot as someone on #irc told me... The ReadMe.txt file of that user in the system (under root/spot) says:

To change from root to user spot, type this:
# su spot
# cd ~
Or, do this:
# su --login spot


My question is - where am I supposed to type this into?

open a terminal, it's the icon on the top row that looks like a tv

tell us what it's like being spot, most of us just run as root

[we are reckless]

Depending on how you run Puppy, and how you use it, there may be no advantage to run as user Spot. Do you run Puppy from the CD, or have you installed it on your hard disk drive? Does your computer have a DVD burner? Do you share a computer with other people? Have you been known to bork your computer? If you don't share, and practice safe computing, then there's really little reason to worry about running as root.

True, true...

Whenever someone just says "Type this" they think of terminal (aka console / CLI (command line interface) )

Thanks guys.

I have Puppy installed on my hard drive, my computer does not have a dvd reader let alone burner, and it is not really shared but family can just come in and boot it if they need it and that's the idea (since my main computer is like fort boyard with passwords I don't care to divulge). Also I occasionally surf some shady sites, so it's probably a good idea to at least give spot a go.

Thanks again. I'll report back.

Hope It is ok to ask.

What is good with Spot. What does it do? I have used Puppy now since Dec 2009 and I had not heard of Spot or if I had heard the word I failed to get what it was about.

So what is it?

It's a limited user which is in puppy by default but most users don't know/care
It can't run X though but you can run any app from terminal as limited user if you change to it first Then anything launched from that terminal session will run as limited user, you can also pass command to run directly to su
And browser will run as user "spot" and not "root"
You may have not heard of spot user but you must have noticed directory /root/spot which is spot's home directory so app configurations go there (hidden directories, e.g. /root/spot/.mozilla will be created for seamonkey or firefox)

It (spot) can't run X though

Aah, to run X is what noobs like me want to do. Sure I use CLI if it is the only way to do something but to run X is more conveniant if one have a poor memory for abbrevations and sequential order of things.

But doing everything in cli can be very effective if one know what one do though. So I am not discouraging those who have the talent for it. I've seen them in action on Unix since 1988

Sorry, I didn't explain good.
You can run X apps as spot but you can't log in as spot and run X itself - that's mostly why puppy is not full multiuser.
when you switch to spot user in console you can launch X apps from that console but they will run with spot's priviledges (or non-priviledges )
So spot is not only for running CLI apps but it can't run X itself

Would it make me safer if I use spot when I browse the internet?

So I can start any kind of program except the xwin? No desktop or menu only a prompt to write commands in? But would not Rox work as a kind of browser of files?

Hahah I am so chicken that I don't even dare to test because I have a good working version of quirky now so I don't want to screw that one up by accidently change anything being spot.

nooby wrote:Would it make me safer if I use spot when I browse the internet?

I think the Golden Age of the Internet was circa 2000

Some say this is Web 2.0 or something like that. If true, when will
they release Web 2.1?

Or for that matter will they release it?

These days, I don't even recommend trusting pirates. I won't
mention device driver sites.

What is the question?

hi i want to add this command to the .dektop file to run teh app pidgin as user spot any ideas what exec command i can use. its not easy to find in wikka or forums how to do this.

Try with If it doesn't work from .desktop file then make a script with this command and put path to script in desktop file.

I'm finding that while running Chromium as spot, that it will not allow me to upload from my drives. I understand the download to spot but apparently I can only upload from spot, as well? I can't access the my drives through the browser.

Is that the intention of Spot or is this some sort of unknown issue?

Thanks,

Slavvo

slavvo67 wrote:I'm finding that while running Chromium as spot, that it will not allow me to upload from my drives. I understand the download to spot but apparently I can only upload from spot, as well? I can't access the my drives through the browser.

Is that the intention of Spot or is this some sort of unknown issue?

Don't quote me, but I seem to remember that the FatDog64 or LightHouse64 first-time wizard says something similar to what you just said; that when running internet as spot your download and upload are affected, and that you might need to change file permissions in order to be able to upload.

Step:

I think that was enough to confirm my suspicions. At first, i thought it was a permissions thing with my distro but after reviewing it further it is definitely caused by having your browser run in Spot.

It's a shame because Chromium seems to work quite well for me but the annoyance of having to send files to spot in order to upload is enough to drive me crazy. Chromium and Chrome will not run in root.

Back to Seamonkey and Opera....

Thanks for your input,

Slavvo67

slavvo67 wrote:Back to Seamonkey and Opera....

I don't think running them as spot will make any difference than chromium.

You should try searching how to run chromium as root. But that would defeat it's purpose.
The problem you're having is actually desirable and secure way to browse the net.
Not having access yourself will also make it hard to access for others. But that's what I think please correct me if I am wrong.

On second note I seem to remember once I installed a pet and it messed up permissions of some system files I couldn't start Firefox from my desktop shortcut. When I typed firefox in terminal it started but further inspection showed it ran as root. when I inspected my desktop icon it points to 'firefox -spot'. I typed that in terminal and it didn't run. After the author of that pet corrected permissions it could run both way. So that might be a way to run from terminal. I am quite new to Linux so I may be wrong.
Oh.. I use Fatdog64-630.

hope that helps...

I guess what I meant is that I can run Seamonky or Opera (not as Spot) and be ok. Chrome / Chromium will not run as root but the other two will.

Thanks for your help.

Slavvo67

About root, spot and fido
[url]file:///usr/share/doc/root.htm[/url]

bigpup wrote:About root, spot and fido
[url]file:///usr/share/doc/root.htm[/url]

couldn't find it in Fatdog64-631.
is there an online version?