12

Anything I want to download or to perform the easiest tasks, I am prompted for my password. All though this is an excellent security feature, it is a real inconvenience. I tried sudo visudo and changed %ALL=(ALL) ALL to NOPASSWD:ALL saved and exit to no avail. Need suggestions.

2
  • Could you give some examples of "the easiest tasks"? There is no definite answer, as there are many different layers of authentication and password prompting when working with a system.
    – arrange
    Aug 23, 2011 at 17:51
  • You want to run your system as root. You can find out how to do that at these links. How to enable root login? How do I login as root?
    – Sepero
    Jul 6, 2012 at 7:27

1 Answer 1

7

Run as root? (Just kidding, you shouldn't do this.)

Others might have a way to do this, but I think you should consider not doing it. The permission scheme set up on Linux systems has been very well thought out, and it goes deep into the system. You can really do a lot of damage to your system very easily, and the point of having you enter a password is to make sure you want change your system in some way.

Another possibility is that some malicious piece of software tries to damage your system. This has been a huge problem on Windows systems for years. On Linux, it's very difficult to do something like this because all major changes to your system need to be authenticated.

In the end, how often do you need to enter your password? Installing software should only happen once, and then it's set up. You'll need it to make changes to the system, but again, you're probably not going to do this very often and it's easy to make a typo and break your system.

In the end, it's up to you, but I urge you to consider how inconvenient entering a password is, and how much you gain from having that extra layer of security.

3
  • +1 for good reasoning, despite this is a counter-answer :) Aug 23, 2011 at 15:11
  • 1
    Sorry, I can't give +1.
    – Anwar
    Jul 6, 2012 at 4:55
  • before being given the power to destroy their systems and compromise their data (+1 to Sepero), people have to be advised against (+1 to Kris Harper) - in case a god-above is watching
    – user47206
    Oct 12, 2012 at 7:45

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .