text:
Photographer's Note
Torontos industrial district, second photo of the series,first one can be seen here.
Plan to submit them to Torontos Tourism and Travel Cataloque.
Critiques | Translate
dsidwell (9783) 2004-12-19 23:11
Well Peter, I'm not sure the tourism council will want this, as it shows less desirable things about their community, but i just love it. The tones, choice of b/w, and composition are really marvelous!
Michael_Gan (2776) 2004-12-20 1:43
Peter, great industrial shot. I like the governing dark tones in your picture in combination with your choice for B&W and the grain. The large chimney looks very threatening, just as if the Dark Lord (or Big Brother...) is having his office on top of it!
Galeota (10352) 2004-12-20 2:42
A very good B&W conversion and post treatment. The grain, associated with a heavy contrast renders well the particular and depressive atmosphere of the industrial activity. This is somehow as powerful as your previous photograph on the same subject. Very good composition.
GrahamB (939) 2004-12-20 3:07
A very good industrial shot. The lighting on the different plumes of smoke is excellent and I like the way the tall stack fades into the dark at the top.
Cool-ice (5289) 2004-12-20 3:37
You used the light perfectly and you post-processing is incredibly strong, with the contrasts, the sepia and the grain.
A worrying image to show to our children :-(
RGatward (20086) 2004-12-20 4:49
Smog and smoke! not something we get to see much of in Europe these days, yes, a good tourist attraction, something I imagine I'll think well worth the trip one day, if only to get this kind of shot, but I'm surpised you don't similar resrictions in Canada. Or is the scene a bit misleading, early morning mist, combiined with cleaned-up emissions from that modern looking chimney, the large stack in the background redundant? Great light on the scene, and good choice of grainy treatment.
yekjohn (1890) 2004-12-20 7:24
Excellent lighting control. You have managed to capture the atmosphere, which i feel is always very difficult to do with the camera. But you've done it!
Luko (14000) 2004-12-20 11:46
I wonder how you were led to this specific BW rendition which is typically something you would expect with overprocessed lith : charcoal greys and sandy beige brighter areas.
Something like this one (though a completely different topic).
This is depressing but excellently shot and processed...with all theses fumes at the bottom of the background chimney I first thought it was the image of a collapsing (industrial 9/11).
(btw : 1/1000s. with a tripod? are you that shaky, Peter ;) ?
pascalbene (1717) 2004-12-20 11:52
What a beautiful image. I realy appreciate this magnificent optic effect of brokening. Bravissimo.
flydragon (0) 2004-12-20 12:28
Hello Peter
amazing picture
and really good
i like the black part on the top
also youe B&W is perfect
verry good work
robiuk (10807) 2004-12-21 17:18
I like this heavy contrast and slightly warm tone of your b/w.
The future of the planet doesn't seem to be bright - as suggested by taller chimney that points up in the black sky.
eleparc (24063) 2004-12-21 17:36
strong impactful shot! the choice of b&w makes it even stronger! the contrast enhances the smokes and the industrial aspect of the photo.. nice shot!
mitternacht (1839) 2004-12-23 16:42
How did you get the sky so dark? It really emphasizes the atmosphere that this picture already would have without it. Very well composed picture, the plumes of smoke "hugging" the chimneys are really great. I think the tourism catalogue will be thrilled to recieve this picture :).
jrj (34843) 2004-12-27 9:18
Very effectful industrial shot in an almost dramatic setting Peter. Very good play and use of light. Good detail to have included the naked trees in the foreground. BW a good choice for this one. Elegant framing.
RandomCameraGuy (3071) 2005-01-05 22:20
I'm a fan of gritty "real" photos, and this is a pretty good one! I like what you did with the contrast and darkness of the sky (yet still having highlights on the stack). Cheers man and good luck with the travel catalogue, these are winners! They can put em next to the SARS shots! ;-)
Mr_Martini (27) 2005-01-13 8:25 [Comment]
sohrab (7439) 2005-01-22 23:52
oooooooooh so depressing.
i love it
i think you've taken us to another time here... the future when the entire world will look like this
this is a very powerful photograph. i think you should not only submit them to the tourism and travel catalogue, but also to some government agency which is looking after the issue of pollution
i think this photograph can be very helpful to them in their campaign against pollution
well done peter
take care:)
karina (1109) 2005-01-24 7:30
So sinister yet somehow so beautiful at the same time..... the tones are lovely. Really well seen and executed but what is even more important is the powerful nature of this image.
Jaku (6812) 2005-01-25 19:40
Bardzo sympatycznie z tym ziarnem wygląda.
Kolorystyka - taka "brudna" też pasuje do charakteru zdjęcia.
keribar (43841) 2005-03-10 15:13
Hi Peter,
This is exactly the kind of picture that should be used in the Kyoto agreement. Very very good. Izzet
Proxilva (2157) 2005-06-03 11:56
Hi peter
been browsing throught your portfolio... mpressing photo's you have here, strange i didn't find out that before ;)
i like the way you keep playing with light and your compositions are most of the time excellent...
this moment is a great catch!! and i add it to my favorites so i can find it back quite easilly
Photo Information
- Copyright: Peter Kozikowski (Homerhomer) (4080)
- Genre: Miejsca
- Medium: Czarno-białe
- Date Taken: 2004-12-00
- Categories: Architektura
- Camera: Canon G3
- Naświetlenie: f/5.0, 1/1000 sekund
- Details: Tripod: Yes
- Wersja zdjęcia: Oryginalna wersja
- Temat(y): Pollution, Sato: Toronto is a Trip! [view contributor(s)]
- Date Submitted: 2004-12-19 22:56
- Ulubione: 2 [Widok]
- To RGatward: scene misleading (1)
by Homerhomer, last updated 2004-12-20 08:32
- To Luko: am I shaky? (1)
by Homerhomer, last updated 2004-12-20 12:24
- To mitternacht: dark sky (1)
by Homerhomer, last updated 2004-12-23 05:28
- To RandomCameraGuy: Next to Sars;-) (1)
by Homerhomer, last updated 2005-01-05 10:44
- To Proxilva: indeed (1)
by Homerhomer, last updated 2005-06-03 12:40


text:
IF we spend as much money as we can
THEN Epicenter will use post-consumer paper, offer a discount if you bring your own mug, get an energy audit, and more!
10 Sep 2009
Epicenter Cafe
764 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94107, USA
For this campaign we tried a new approach. We invited coffee shops in SOMA to film videos in which they said what environmentally-friendly improvements they were willing to make in exchange for having a mob of consumers come and spend lots of money at their business. Then we put the 3 videos online (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJnMI5_3D_Q, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBajc8OfoDw, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4wzfBo0cd0) and invited the public to debate and vote on who was most worthy of a reward. The winner was Epicenter Cafe! Voters were impressed with all the sustainable practices they already have in place, and excited to see them do more. Epicenter is known for their socially responsible coffee from Barefoot Coffee Roasters, but they also have delicious gourmet food and a dizzying array of delicious microbrews and fine wines! Everyone had a good time and the local news came out to tell our story! When the dust settled, our mob gave Epicenter what was (at least at that time) the biggest Thursday night of spending in the history of their business.
As a result of this campaign, Epicenter started using more post-consumer paper, started offering a discount for people who bring their own mugs, joined Green Cafe Network, got an energy audit, looked into PLA products (biodegradable plastics), and continued all their existing sustainable practices.
No updates yet!
Have ideas for Carrotmob? Experiencing problems on our site? Please use the form below. You can also reach us at: firstname.lastname@example.com. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Happy mobbing!
The fastest and easiest way to join Carrotmob is by connecting with your Facebook account. You will also be able see what your friends are doing on Carrotmob and quickly share some of your activities with your network. To learn more about how this works, read this. If you are curious about the permissions we're requesting of your Facebook account, read this. Clicking this button will NOT post anything to your Facebook wall.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
« ELLs To Benefit From Texas' School Finance Ruling, Plaintiffs Say | Main | ELL Clearinghouse Award Expected Soon, Ed. Dept. Says »
Ethnic Studies To Return to Tucson in Court-Backed Desegregation Plan
Mexican-American studies will return to classrooms in Tucson's secondary schools in the fall after a federal judge approved the district's new plan to achieve greater racial balance in its schools.
But the pitched battle over teaching ethnic studies in Tucson may still not be settled even though U.S. District Judge David Bury has given the green light to the school district's Unitary Status plan, which is meant to bring an end to the decades-long desegregation effort in the Arizona city. A key part of that approved plan—which was written by Willis Hawley, the court-assigned special master—is to offer "culturally relevant" courses that focus on the history, experience, and culture of blacks and Latinos.
The school district shuttered the popular Mexican-American studies program a year ago after state officials said the courses violated a state law that forbids public schools from using curriculum that is designed for a particular ethnic group, advocates ethnic solidarity, or promotes resentment toward a race or group of people. State Superintendent John Huppenthal threatened to pull the plug on $15 million in state funding if the district didn't cancel the courses. Judge Bury indicated that state officials would still be free to enforce the state law if they believe the new ethnic studies courses are in violation.
Overall, the unitary status plan for Tucson—to be put in place over the next four years—focuses on reducing discrimination in how students are assigned to schools, how they are disciplined, and the quality of education they are offered. At the end of the 2016-17 school year, the federal court will decide whether the district has eliminated all vestiges of discrimination and desegregation.


text:
Shipping & Returns
How We Ship
Goods are collected directly from our Distro warehouses located in Pretoria/JHB/Cape Town and delivered directly to clients.
- Orders completed before 11am Weekdays are Shipped Same Day
- Courier Cut Off Times are 1pm Week Days, orders placed after 1pm are shipped next day
- Parcel Tracking Codes are displayed by clicking on "Track Your Orders"
- Courier times are area dependant please request your specific area ETA delivery dates.
Collections / Send own courier
- Orders for Collections will be available within 1 hour after payment
- Client will be advised on Warehouse collection address and contact details
- Client will be supplied collection reference for dispatch to release the item(s)
Delivery Times
- Gauteng 1 Day Courier
- Cape Town Area 1 Day Courier
- KZN Durban Area 1 Day Courier
- Limpopo 2-4 days Courier
- Outlining Areas 3-5 days Courier
- Rest of Africa up to 14 days Airmail Only
- USA, Canada, Europe up to 25 days Airmail Only
Public Holidays and Weekends will delay delivery times
Returns Policy
If a client is not satisfied with a purchase, it can be returned within seven days of the delivery for a full refund.
A full refund will only be issued if products:
- are unopened
- with all packaging, manuals, warranty cards, accessories and other material etc
- We cannot send courier to collect rejected items
Should an opened product be returned, or a product be returned without any of these items, a 20% re-stocking fee will be charged.
Order Cancell / Refund Policy
- Refunds are processed within 4 hours for cancelled orders that are not shipped
- Refunds for returned items will take up to 2 weeks after the items has been received
- Refunds are paid directly into the clients bank account via EFT
RMA for Faulty Items
- Faulty items are collected and replaced under ArxValdex shipping costs
- RMA are usually completed within 7 working days, client will be updated accordingly


text:
Basic tasks for new Linux users
Help! I got my Linux installed. Now what?
If you're a Windows user who wants to try Linux, and you are new to Linux, this tutorial is for you. We'll cover a few basic tasks that may be different from what you are used to. We'll cover these tasks:
- Login
- Logging in and understanding the Linux desktop
- Navigation and settings
- Tweaking settings to suit your personal needs
- Command line access
- When you really need to work at the command line
- Becoming superuser (or root)
- When ordinary user authority isn't enough
- Using a GUI application as another user
- Getting comfortable with multi-user system capabilities
- Removable devices
- Using removable media and making sure you don't lose data when you detach removable devices
- Logout
- When you're done for a while or need a panel icon for logout or other applications
- Adding users and groups
- Adding more users or user groups to your system
These instructions and examples focus on three popular distributions and their default graphical desktops:
- Fedora 13 using a GNOME desktop
- OpenSUSE 11.3 using a KDE 4 desktop
- Ubuntu 10.10 using a GNOME desktop
Other distributions, desktops, and window managers are available, and we encourage you to explore further on your own. Even if some of the information here is specific to a particular distribution and even a particular version of a distribution, what you learn here should help you navigate a strange distribution. Because this tutorial simply aims to help you get started, you won't find information on more advanced tasks like recompiling your kernel or installing software. We recommend our no-charge Linux (LPI) certification self-study guides for deeper information.
At the time of writing, GNOME 3 is likely to be available soon. Expect changes in that user interface from what is described here.
Before using these instructions, install a Linux system and create at least one non-root user as part of your installation process.
Once you have installed your Linux distribution and booted your system, either you will be automatically logged in or you will see a login screen. The next section shows how to switch between these two startup methods and discusses the security implications of automatic login. For this section, we'll assume you are logging in. The three systems we consider in this tutorial implement login a little differently from each other, but all will prompt with the name of one or more users. Once a user is selected, you need to enter a password.
The login screen
The appearance of the screen varies according to your Linux distribution, and it will probably come as no surprise that you can customize it further, although we won't cover that in this short tutorial. A typical login screen for an Ubuntu 10.10 system is shown in Figure 1, and a typical one for Fedora 14 is shown in Figure 2. These both illustrate the default GNOME desktop used on these systems.
Figure 1. Ubuntu 10.10 login screen
Figure 2. Fedora 14 login screen
A typical login screen for an OpenSUSE 11.3 system with the default KDE 4 desktop is shown in Figure 3 or
Figure 3. OpenSUSE Linux 11.3 login screen
When you enter or select an id and press Enter, you will be prompted for your password. If a password field is showing on the login screen, as in the OpenSUSE example here, you can tab to the password field and enter your password. If there is no entry field for an id showing and you need to enter an id that is not in the list of available ids, you will usually find an entry for something like "other..." as shown in Figure 2. Select that and you should see an entry field for the id. We'll talk more about this in the section Becoming superuser (or root).
Login screens may have other items on them, including a clock, perhaps the name of the system, and icons or named menus that allow you to shut down or restart the system.
On the GNOME desktops is a small icon that looks something like a figure of a person inside a circle. Click this and you will see a dialog for accessibility options such as an on-screen keyboard or larger font. An example from our Fedora system is shown in Figure 4. We used the option to make text larger and easier to read for the login screen shown in Figure 2.
Figure 4. Fedora login accessibility options
The desktop screen
After you type in your password and press Enter again, you
should be logged in and see your desktop. Figure 5 shows what you might see as user
ian on an Ubuntu 10.10 system, with a panel along
the top and another along the bottom. To explore the desktop, move your
mouse over the icons or click on them.
Note: The next three images are intended to give you an impression of the way your desktop will look. Don't worry if you can't read the tiny print on them.
Figure 5. Sample initial window for Ubuntu 10 and GNOME desktop
Fedora 14 also uses a GNOME desktop. In Figure 6, we clicked the System icon on the left part of the top panel and then selected Preferences. As we hover over the Desktop Effects choice in the subsidiary menu, the hover help shows Select desktop effects. This is where you select desktop effects such as having your window edges wobble as you move them around the desktop. Note that this requires 3-D graphics capabilities and possibly a graphics driver that is not open source.
Figure 6. Sample initial window for Fedora 14 and GNOME desktop
Figure 7 shows what you might see with OpenSUSE and a KDE 4 desktop.
Figure 7. Sample initial window for SUSE Linux and KDE desktop
The relatively new KDE 4 desktop uses a different navigation metaphor, which we'll discuss more in the section Navigation and settings. Note that the window menu for Desktop folder slides out to the left or right of the window, rather than being fixed at the top.
Navigation and settings
Let's spend a moment exploring the Linux panels on the desktop and then look at navigation and an example of how you can customize your desktop by switching to left-handed mouse usage.
Desktop panels
Panels give you a starting place for interacting with your desktop and provide information about your system. You will usually find one or two panels on your desktop. Typically these will default to being on the top, the bottom, or both the top and bottom edges of the screen. You can move them to the left or right edges if you wish, typically by right clicking and changing the properties.
Different distributions and different desktops often differ in panel layout, so expect differences here. Our Ubuntu GNOME panels are shown in Figure 8. We've shown the ends of the panels for clarity.
Figure 8. GNOME panel features on Ubuntu
- The left part of the top panel provides a launching place for accessing programs, folders (directories), or system settings and information.
- The right part of the top panel provides information such as time and date, along with several quick-access buttons for functions like setting volume control, opening chat windows, and logging out.
- The left part of the bottom panel has a button to hide all windows and show the desktop, along with buttons for active windows.
- The right part of the bottom panel contains a trash bin and four rectangles that allow you to navigate between your virtual desktops. Most Linux systems set up multiple distinct desktops, so you can keep your email and web browsing on one desktop, while doing program development on another and testing on yet another, for example. You switch between them by clicking the appropriate smaller square or by using a key combination. For GNOME, Ctrl-Alt-left arrow or Ctrl-Alt-right arrow usually cycles through them in the same way that Alt-tab will cycle through application windows on a given desktop. For OpenSUSE, ctrl-F1 through ctrl-F4 will directly select desktops 1 through 4. When exploring, make sure you log in as a non-root user to avoid accidents; such mistakes may be more serious when you have unlimited authority.
The panels for our Fedora system are shown in Figure 9. The System item in the upper left is selected as we used the image from Figure 6 to create this image. Notice that we do not have quick access to the logout function in the upper right, the hide all windows function in the lower left, or the trash icon that we saw in the lower right of the Ubuntu panels. Otherwise, the panel layout is reasonably similar.
Figure 9. GNOME panel features on Fedora
The OpenSUSE system has a panel across the bottom only, as shown in Figure 10. Access to programs as well as folders and system functions starts with the large button at the far left, which we will refer to as the Start button. Also on the left are quick-access buttons to a browser and desktop navigator, followed by buttons for each of the five virtual desktops. On the right end of the panel, you find a clock and several convenience buttons similar to those at the right end of the upper Ubuntu GNOME panel.
Figure 10. KDE 4 panel features on OpenSUSE
The GNOME 2.3x desktop uses the cascading menus that have now become familiar. Figure 11 illustrates how to access the mouse settings from the Fedora System icon. Different distributions may arrange these menus differently. For example, you will find the mouse settings on Ubuntu in the same location, but if you are looking for the Desktop Effects preferences, which you find under System->Preferences->Desktop Effects on our Fedora system, you find it as the Visual Effects tab under System->Preferences->Appearance. Exploring graphical applications is often like turning over different rocks to see what is hiding underneath them.
Figure 11. Accessing mouse settings in Fedora
In contrast, the KDE 4 desktop uses a different metaphor for the Start menu. Menu panels replace each other, and you navigate by clicking on items in the menu or by mousing over the icons at the bottom of the menu. Figure 12 illustrates the Favorites and Applications menus.
Figure 12. Changing KDE 4 menus by mousing over icons
When submenus are selected, such as from Start->Applications->Utilities, a back button opens along the left of the menu so you can return to the previous menu level. Figure 12 illustrates this.
Figure 13. KDE 4 menu back button
Some Start menu items on OpenSUSE open a dialog box, possibly containing further selections. An example is the Start->Applications->Configure Desktop menu, which opens a window like that in Figure 14, where we show the hover help for the Keyboard & Mouse settings menu item.
Figure 14. KDE 4 Configure Desktop menu
Switching to left-handed mouse usage
A right-handed user is generally assumed, but you can change your mouse configuration for left-handed use, along with many other desktop settings. Refer back to Figure 11 or Figure 14 to navigate to the mouse settings dialog.
On an Ubuntu system, you should see a window similar to Figure 15 where you can change your mouse settings. In addition to basic left-handed or right-handed use, there are several other settings you can change and a tab of additional settings for accessibility. Settings take effect immediately, so once you click the left-handed choice, your mouse is set for left-handed use and you'll have to use the right mouse button as button 1 to close the dialog. The dialog on a Fedora system is similar.
Figure 15. GNOME dialog to change mouse settings
On an OpenSUSE system with KDE, you should see a window similar to Figure 16 where you can change your mouse settings. Note the mouse image in the dialog. If you switch to left-handed use, the right button in the mouse illustration will be highlighted to indicate that it is your primary selection button. Switch back to right-handed use, and the left button will be highlighted. As with the Ubuntu dialog, there are several other options that you can set. Unlike the Ubuntu dialog, the changes only take effect when you click the Apply button.
Figure 16. KDE dialog to change mouse settings
Command line access
Sometimes on a Linux system you need to enter Linux commands rather than using a GUI. A Linux Terminal window is similar to a DOS command prompt under Windows. On our KDE desktop, you can reach a list of available terminal programs using Start->Applications->System->Terminal as shown in Figure 17.
Figure 17. Opening a terminal on OpenSUSE with KDE 4
On the Ubuntu system, you can find a terminal window either under Applications->Accessories->Terminal as shown in Figure 18 or under Applications->System->Terminal. On Fedora systems, look under Applications->System Tools->Terminal.
Note: If you right-click (or use the appropriate button if you reconfigured your mouse) the terminal menu choice, you will usually see an option to add this icon to your panel or desktop. Adding it to your panel gives you quick access to a terminal without going through the menus.
Figure 18. KDE shell icon
On the OpenSUSE system, select the Terminal (konsole) choice and you will get a terminal window something like Figure 19. In both Figure 19 and Figure 20, we've included some commands and their output that we'll discuss below.
Figure 19. KDE shell icon
The Ubuntu terminal window will look something like Figure 20.
Figure 20. KDE shell icon
The default appearance of your shell window depends on your distribution
and your choice of desktop. To resize it, you can use the left mouse
button to drag the corners or sides of the window. To scroll back through
the most recent history, you can use the scroll bar. The command prompt
typically ends with a $ character for users other than
Usually the command prompt will end with a
# character
indicating that the user of this shell is user
root or has
root authority. You can use the up arrow to recall previous commands and
modify them if necessary. You will usually find a Settings or Terminal
menu where you change things like window colors and fonts.
Figure 19 and Figure 20 show a few commands and their output:
- Shows who is using this terminal window,
ianin this case.
- Prints the full name of the current working directory, which is
/home/ianin this case. Note that the tilde (~) before the $ in the command prompt shows that the user is currently in his or her home directory.
- Changes the current or working directory. We illustrate changing to
the / (or root) directory and then to the /tmp directory, which is
usually used for storing temporary files. Note that / is the root of
the whole file system, and /root is the home directory of the
rootuser. Using
cdwithout any directory name returns the user to the home directory, and using
cd -returns you to the last directory you were in before the current one. Users other than root will normally have a home directory under /home. For example, /home/ian is my home directory on a system where my id is
ian. Remember that tilde (~) is shorthand for the home directory of the current user. Add the name of a specific user to reference that user's home directory. For example, the home directory for user
iancan also be referenced as
- Without parameters, shows the name of the operating system: Linux.
With the
-aparameter, displays additional information about your system.
- Scans the directories in your
PATHenvironment variable, and shows the full path to an executable program that would be executed if you typed the command at the shell prompt. In this case, we see that the
xclockprogram would be run from /usr/bin/xclock. Note: This application is not always installed in a default Linux installation. It is usually part of a package with a name like xorg-x11-apps, so you may have to find and install the appropriate package to use it.
- Launches a new window on your desktop with a clock. Note the trailing
& on the command, which indicates that the command processor
should return control to the terminal window rather than wait for the
command to finish. Note also that this is the first such process
spawned by this terminal window, and it has a process id
PID) of 1774.
- With the
-Toption, displays all processes started by this terminal. On some systems, the default display from the
pscommand includes a process status. See the man pages for details on all possible options and output columns. If the status were displayed in this example, you would see the
bashshell program waiting for input (status
Sfor sleeping) as would be the
xclockprocess. The
pscommand is running and would have status
Rfor runnable.
The output from these commands is shown in the two terminal windows above. A text form from the Ubuntu system is shown in Listing 1.
Listing 1. Ubuntu output from some basic commands
ian@pinguino:~$ whoami ian ian@pinguino:~$ pwd /home/ian ian@pinguino:~$ cd / ian@pinguino:/$ cd /tmp ian@pinguino:/tmp$ uname Linux ian@pinguino:/tmp$ uname -a Linux pinguino 2.6.35-27-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 22 20:25:29 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux ian@pinguino:/tmp$ which xclock /usr/bin/xclock ian@pinguino:/tmp$ xclock& [1] 2072 ian@pinguino:/tmp$ ps -T PID SPID TTY TIME CMD 2049 2049 pts/1 00:00:00 bash 2072 2072 pts/1 00:00:00 xclock 2073 2073 pts/1 00:00:00 ps ian@pinguino:/tmp$
Some other commands that you might find useful include:
- Displays information about the command named cmd_name. Try
info infoto find out about the info documentation system.
- Is an interface to the online manual (man) pages about the command
named cmd_name. Some information is in info format, while
some is available only in man page format. Try
man manto find out more about manual pages.
Becoming superuser (or root)
For many tasks on Linux, you need root or superuser
authority. The root user, sometimes called the
superuser, is the user that is normally used for administrative
tasks like configuring the system or installing software. Use
root only when you need to do administrative tasks; avoid
root for your normal work. The root user
can do anything, including accidentally destroying your system, which is
usually not a good thing. Normal users have fewer privileges, and the
system is much more protected from being inadvertently damaged by normal
Most administrative applications that have a graphical interface now ask for the root password before allowing non-root users access to the function. When you need to run commands from a terminal window as root, this doesn't help.
Your first thought may be to switch to another userid by logging out of the
current userid and logging in as the new userid. But what if you only need
to run a couple of quick commands as another user? Linux has a solution
for you: The
su (substitute user) and
commands allow you to temporarily run one or more commands as another
user. This is often used for tasks that require root access. Indeed, if
you connect in remotely to a system using a terminal program such as
ssh (or the very insecure
telnet), then many
Linux distributions will prevent you from signing in as root. This is a
good security practice, and we encourage you to not try to circumvent it.
Rather, you should sign in as a non-privileged user and then use the
su or
sudo command to do the work you need to do
with root authority.
To summarize, there are two main ways to run an arbitrary command with root authority.
- Use the
sucommand, usually with the
-option to become root.
- Use the
sudocommand to execute a single command with root authority.
On systems such as Fedora or OpenSUSE, both methods are available, although
su is perhaps more common. On Debian-based systems such
as Ubuntu, the security model prevents root login, so you can neither log
in as root nor use
su to become root, so you must use
Using su
Suppose you are logged in and looking at a terminal window, and you are not
the root user but need to run a command, such as
fdisk, which
requires root authority. You switch to root using the
command alone, or, more commonly, add the
- option.
su command without the
- option simply
switches you to become root, but does not change your environment
variables, including your path. The
- option, which may also
be typed as
-l or
-login if you really like
typing extra letters, allows the login startup files for the substitute
user to be read, thus setting things such as the path, environment, and
prompt to those of the target user. Listing 2 shows examples of these two forms on our
Fedora system. We've used the
pwd (print working directory)
command to show the current working directory in each case. Note how the
prompts differ. If you'd like to understand more about how to customize
your own prompts or what makes these prompts appear as they do, check out
the "Prompt magic" tip on developerWorks.
Listing 2. Switching to the root user
[ian@echidna ~]$ su Password: [root@echidna ian]# pwd /home/ian [root@echidna ian]# su - [root@echidna ~]# pwd /root
You will notice, not surprisingly, that you had to provide a password to
switch to root. Once you have root authority, you can use
su - to switch to another user or to switch to root
with the login option. If you want to switch to a non-root user, just add
the id. As before, you can use the
- option or not, according
to your needs. For example:
su - db2inst1
To return to the previous id, press
Ctrl-d or type
exit and press Enter if you are using the
bash shell, which is the default on most Linux systems.
Now that we've learned how to use
su, let's put it into
practice with the
fdisk command.
Listing 3. Running the fdisk command with su
[ian@echidna ~]$ fdisk /dev/sda Unable to open /dev/sda [ian@echidna ~]$ su - Password: [root@echidna ~]# fdisk /dev/sda Command (m for help): m Command action a toggle a bootable flag b edit bsd disklabel c toggle the dos compatibility flag d delete a partition l list known partition types m print this menu n add a new partition o create a new empty DOS partition table p print the partition table q quit without saving changes s create a new empty Sun disklabel t change a partition's system id u change display/entry units v verify the partition table w write table to disk and exit x extra functionality (experts only) Command (m for help): q [root@echidna ~]# exit logout [ian@echidna ~]$
Using sudo
Like the
su command, the
sudo command allows you
to run commands with the authority of another user. The commands that a
given user or class of users may execute are listed in the /etc/sudoers
file. In contrast to the
su command, you do
not need to know the password of the root, or other
user, although you will need to provide your own password. The
/etc/sudoers file is maintained by root and can be edited using the
visudo command.
Usually, if you are executing multiple
sudo commands in rapid
succession, you will not need to reenter your password for each one. An
alternative is to run
sudo with the
-s option,
which runs a shell for you, from which you can run many commands as the
target user until you close the shell. Listing 4 illustrates both of these methods.
Listing 4. Using the sudo command on Ubuntu
ian@pinguino:~$ fdisk /dev/sda Unable to open /dev/sda ian@pinguino:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda [sudo] password for ian: WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to sectors (command 'u'). Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x54085408 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 2611 20972826 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda2 2612 2624 104422+ 83 Linux /dev/sda3 2625 14593 96140962 5 Extended /dev/sda5 2625 2689 522081 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda6 2690 5180 20008926 83 Linux /dev/sda7 5181 9341 33423201 83 Linux /dev/sda8 9342 14593 42186658+ 83 Linux Command (m for help): q ian@pinguino:~$ sudo -s root@pinguino:~# fdisk /dev/sda WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to sectors (command 'u'). Command (m for help): q root@pinguino:~# exit ian@pinguino:~$
If you are not authorized in the sudoers file, you will receive an error message similar to that in Listing 5.
Listing 5. Attempting to use sudo without authority
[ian@echidna ~]$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda [sudo] password for ian: ian is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Using a GUI application as another user
You may have noticed in the discussion of the
su command in
the previous section that we ran only commands that
displayed output in the terminal window. Usually you will be able to run
GUI commands too. For example, some installation programs require you to
have root authority to install a program and have a GUI installer. If you
find you cannot start GUI applications as another user, then read on, as
you may have to take additional steps on some distributions in order to
run GUI applications as another user.
Note: Recent distributions often let you have multiple desktops open at once and switch between them using a key sequence such as Ctrl-Alt-F7 or Ctrl-Alt-F8. Depending on what you need to do, this may be another alternative. See the section on Logout for details on this menu option.
GUI applications on Linux use the X Window System, a client-server system designed to allow multiple users to access a computer across a network using windowed applications. An X display is known by a name of the form hostname:displaynumber.screennumber. For Linux running on a workstation such as a PC, there is typically only one display with a single screen. In this case, the displayname may be, and usually is, omitted so the display is known as :0.0, or sometimes just :0.
The X Window System server needs to know the display and also whether you are authorized to connect to the server. Authorization is most commonly done using the MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1, which is a long random string that is regenerated whenever the server is reset. So that applications can pass this information to the X server, you will have DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY variables set in your environment. The XAUTHORITY variable will point to a file that is usually only able to be read or written by the owning user as a security precaution. We assume you are using a graphical login if you are reading this, so your startup should have already set these for you. The example in Listing 6 is from our Ubuntu system and shows the values of the DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY variables as well as the ownership for the file pointed to by the XAUTHORITY variable.
Listing 6. DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY
ian@pinguino:~$ echo $DISPLAY :0.0 ian@pinguino:~$ echo $XAUTHORITY /var/run/gdm/auth-for-ian-WoeKHn/database ian@pinguino:~$ ls -l $XAUTHORITY -rw------- 1 ian ian 53 2011-04-01 16:24 /var/run/gdm/auth-for-ian-WoeKHn/database
Now we attempt to use
sudo to run the
command as user
editor, again on our Ubuntu system. As Listing 7 shows, the values for
DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY variables are the same as for user
ian, but the
xclock command fails.
Listing 7. DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY with sudo
ian@pinguino:~$ sudo -u editor echo $DISPLAY [sudo] password for ian: :0.0 ian@pinguino:~$ sudo -u editor echo $XAUTHORITY /var/run/gdm/auth-for-ian-WoeKHn/database ian@pinguino:~$ sudo -u editor xclock No protocol specified Error: Can't open display: :0.0
In this case, user
editor has the XAUTHORITY variable set to
/var/run/gdm/auth-for-ian-WoeKHn/database, but we already saw that the
permissions on that file only allow user
ian to read or write
it. The variable may as well not be set if user
editor cannot
read the file it points to. Before we look at how to address this issue,
let's look at what happens if we unset either the DISPLAY or XAUTHORITY
variables for user
ian.. We'll do this by running the
xclock command with an environment variable modified using
env command's
-u option to unset an
environment variable before running
xclock. Our results are
in Listing 8.
Listing 8. Unsetting DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY
ian@pinguino:~$ env -u DISPLAY xclock Error: Can't open display: ian@pinguino:~$ env -u XAUTHORITY xclock
You may be surprised to see that the
xclock command runs, even
though we unset the XAUTHORITY environment variable.
So far, we have mentioned the MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 security method. If the
token is not provided, the X server will also check a list of authorized
hosts. Use the
xhost command to display or update the list.
Use the
+ option to add entries and the
- option
to remove entries. Use the special family entry
local: (note the ':') to allow access to the display by any
local user on the system. Since you are a single user system, this means
that you can su to an arbitrary non-root user and can now launch
xclock or other X applications. We illustrate the use of the
xhost command in Listing 9.
Listing 9. Using xhost
ian@pinguino:~$ xhost access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect SI:localuser:ian ian@pinguino:~$ xhost +local: non-network local connections being added to access control list ian@pinguino:~$ xhost access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect LOCAL: SI:localuser:ian ian@pinguino:~$ sudo -u editor xclock ian@pinguino:~$ # Close the xclock window to return here ian@pinguino:~$ xhost -local: non-network local connections being removed from access control list ian@pinguino:~$ xhost access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect SI:localuser:ian
On a single user system, enabling the display for use by all local users is
usually a reasonable and simple solution. If you need to be more
restrictive, use the
xauth to extract the cookie from your
XAUTHORITY file and give it to the user who needs access to the display.
In Listing 10 we perform the following
- Use
xauthas user
ianto display the cookie in a format that can be emailed or otherwise sent to the desired other user.
- Use
sudo -sand switch to user
editorto run several commands.
- Use
xauthto create a new authorization file. Note that we used
echoto pipe the data to stdin while splitting the command over several lines by using a trailing backslash (\).
- We export a new value for the XAUTHORITY variable so it now points to our newly created authorization file.
- Finally, we run the xclock command using a trailing ampersand (&) to run it in the background and retain control of our terminal window.
Listing 10. Using xauth
ian@pinguino:~$ xauth -f $XAUTHORITY nextract - :0 0100 0008 70696e6775696e6f 0001 30 0012 4d49542d4d414749432d434f4f4b49452d31 0010 3c4bc87 c2ce4ce5e97f8199c213b4ec9 ian@pinguino:~$ sudo -s -u editor editor@pinguino:~$ echo "0100 0008 70696e6775696e6f 0001 30 0012"\ > " 4d49542d4d414749432d434f4f4b49452d31"\ > " 0010 3c4bc87c2ce4ce5e97f8199c213b4ec9" | > xauth -f ~editor/temp-xauth nmerge - xauth: creating new authority file /home/editor/temp-xauth editor@pinguino:~$ export XAUTHORITY=~editor/temp-xauth editor@pinguino:~$ xclock& [1] 4827
This brief introduction will probably get you started with running X
applications as another user. Although we have used Ubuntu as an example,
the basic principles we have demonstrated here apply to all distributions.
For more details on using the
xauth and
commands, you can use any of these commands as appropriate to view the
online manual pages:
info xauth
man xauth
info xhost
man xhost
Removable devices
On Linux and UNIX® systems, all files are accessed as part of a single large tree that is rooted at /. To access the files on a CD-ROM, you need to mount the CD-ROM device at some mount point in the file tree. On current distributions, this is usually automated for you; you need only insert the disc and it will be recognized and mounted. Once mounted, it is important to properly unmount the device to avoid data loss.
Mounting removable devices
When you insert a CD or DVD disc into a SUSE 11.3 system, or attach a USB drive, you will see a pop-up window similar to Figure 21. If you miss the pop-up before it closes, you can use the panel icon that we've shown in the top left of the figure to open it again. Hovering over the icon shows the tooltip indicating that the device is not yet mounted.
Figure 21. Pop-up when CD or DVD loaded on SUSE system
Hovering over the plug icon to the right of the image reveals a tooltip saying "Click to access this device from other applications". Clicking over the text "4 actions for this device" expands the image to look like Figure 22. The available actions may differ on your system if you have installed different software packages.
Figure 22. Available actions for CD or DVD
If you click the "Open with File Manager" selection, you will see a window something like Figure 23. From this window you can navigate around the DVD, open files, or run applications. Hover over an item to see a description in the right part of the window.
Figure 23. SUSE File Manager
On Ubuntu and Fedora systems, the default action on inserting a disc is slightly different. Usually, an icon similar to that shown in Figure 24 will appear on your desktop. The file manager (Nautilus) may also open automatically. If it does not, you can double-click the icon to open the file manager. Depending on your system, you may also be prompted as to whether to run the autorun file in the root of the disc or not.
Figure 24. Inserted CD on Ubuntu
If you clicked to access the device from other applications (OpenSUSE), or
opened it with File Manager or another application on any distribution,
then the device will have been mounted for you. It will usually be mounted
in the /media directory and will probably use the disc label as a mount
point. You can verify by opening a terminal window and running the
mount command as shown for our OpenSUSE system in Listing 11. Other systems are very
similar, although the mount options may differ slightly.
Listing 11. Using the mount command
ian@lyrebird:~> mount /dev/sdb12 on / type ext4 (rw,acl,user_xattr) proc on /proc type proc (rw) sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw) ... /dev/sr0 on /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000, utf8)
In this case our disc is mounted at /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001 and you can explore it or change to a directory on the disc from the terminal window. Note that the CD/DVD device is /dev/sr0. Devices on a Linux system also appear in the filesystem tree. To put this another way, the filesystem that is on the media in the device /dev/sr0 is accessible to applications starting at the mount point /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001. If you'd like to learn more about how devices are mounted, see our article Learn Linux, 101: Control mounting and unmounting of filesystems.
Safely removing devices
Once a DVD or CD is mounted, you can use the files on the disk as they are now part of your file system. While a CD-ROM is mounted, Linux will lock the CD so that it cannot be ejected with the Eject button. Of course, this doesn't stop you from unplugging an external CD or USB drive, pulling a USB stick out of the USB socket, or ejecting a floppy disk. To avoid potential data loss, you should always remove the device safely by first unmounting it.
You can unmount devices from the graphical desktop, or from the command
line. The
umount command (note umount without an 'n')
unmounts a device, and the
eject command first unmounts a
device and then tries to eject it, for example by opening a CD drawer.
Traditionally, mounting and unmounting devices required root authority.
Nowadays, it is common to allow user mounting, so that a non-root
user is able to mount and unmount devices. You may have noticed back in
Listing 11 the option
uid=1000. The uid of 1000 corresponds to user ian on this
system as shown in Listing 12.
Listing 12. Using the id command for the current user
iian@lyrebird:~> id uid=1000(ian) gid=100(users) groups=33(video),100(users)
If you use the graphical desktop tools to unmount the device, you may only need to worry about ids if you have logged out and then back in as a different user. So let's look at the graphical tools, then the command line ones.
On Ubuntu or Fedora, if you right click on the icon for the removable media you will see a context menu similar to that in Figure 25. You will have an option to either unmount or eject the device. Select the eject option for a CD or DVD and the device will be unmounted, the icon will disappear from your desktop, and your drawer will open. For a USB drive, the option may be unmount rather than eject, and you can safely unplug the device after it is unmounted. If you use an external hard drive with multiple partitions, you need to make sure that all partitions are unmounted before removing or powering off the drive.
Figure 25. SUSE File Manager
In Figure 26 we show our OpenSUSE system with an attached USB drive as well as the DVD we had used earlier. The DVD and one partition of the hard drive are mounted. OpenSUSE distinguishes the mounted from the unmounted by changing the plug icon (when a device is not mounted) to an eject button (when it is mounted). You will also note that the small square at the bottom left of the device icon also changes from having a diagonal line to having an asterisk. Note that for writeable media, such as our hard drive, the available space is also displayed.
Figure 26. OpenSUSE File Manager
To unmount or eject a mounted drive, simply click the eject button (shown above for the 2006R1 partition). If you eject a device such as a CD or DVD where a drawer opens or some other similar physical disconnection takes place, then the device will be removed from your list of plugged devices.
Safe removal from the command line
We mentioned the
umount and
eject commands
earlier. Let's now look at how to use them and the
lsof that
you may also want to know about. You will find some differences between
systems in this area, so be prepared for things not to be exactly as we
illustrate here.
To begin, we'll look at using the
unmount command to unmount
the CD on our Ubuntu system as shown in Listing 13. We first use
grep to filter
out the entries from the output of
mount to show only those
entries that contain 'media', the usual mount point for removable media.
We then use
umount to unmount the device using its mount
point (/media/Ubuntu 10.10 i386). Finally, we repeat the mount
+ grep filter to confirm that the device is no longer mounted. Note that
you can use either the mount point or the device name (/dev/sr0 in this
case) as the argument to
Listing 13. Unmounting a CD on Ubuntu from the command line
ian@pinguino:~$ mount | grep media /dev/sr0 on /media/Ubuntu 10.10 i386 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks, uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500) ian@pinguino:~$ umount /media/Ubuntu\ 10.10\ i386 ian@pinguino:~$ mount | grep media
As you can see, Ubuntu allows you to use the command line to unmount a drive that was automatically mounted. Repeating the above scenario on OpenSUSE 11.3 is likely to result in something like Listing 14.
Listing 14. Unmounting a CD on OpenSUSE from the command line (1)
ian@lyrebird:~> mount | grep media /dev/sr0 on /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000, utf8) /dev/sdc6 on /media/2006R1 type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev) ian@lyrebird:~> umount /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001/ umount: /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001 is not in the fstab (and you are not root) ian@lyrebird:~> umount /dev/sr0 umount: /dev/sr0 is not in the fstab (and you are not root)
Sometimes you will find a disconnect between what you can do graphically
and what you might expect to do at a command line. As Linux matures, such
disconnects become less frequent, but you will sometimes find them as we
have done here. The obvious solution, given what you have already learned
in this tutorial, is to use
su or
sudo to run
the required command with root privileges. So let's try it using
su as shown in Listing 15.
Listing 15. Unmounting a CD on OpenSUSE from the command line (2)
ian@lyrebird:~> su - Password: lyrebird:~ # mount | grep media /dev/sr0 on /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000, utf8) /dev/sdc6 on /media/2006R1 type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev) lyrebird:~ # umount /dev/sdc6 lyrebird:~ # umount /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001/ umount: /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001: device is busy. (In some cases useful info about processes that use the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1))
We were able to unmount /dev/sdc6 successfully, but were unable to unmount
/media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001 because Linux claimed it was busy. We
would get a similar error message if we tried to use the
eject command. Remember that we said that Linux will lock a
CD or DVD closed while it is in use. More generally, you cannot unmount a
filesystem if it is in use by some other user. As suggested in the error
message above, you can use the
lsof or
command to find which user is causing your unmount problem. Typical usage
is illustrated in Listing 16.
Listing 16. Using lsof and fuser (as root)
lyrebird:~ # lsof /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001/ COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME bash 3824 ian cwd DIR 11,0 2048 2048 /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001/ boot lyrebird:~ # fuser -um /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001/ /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001: 3824c(ian)
lsof command shows the actual file or directory
(/media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001/boot in this case) that is open as
well as the process id (3824) and user id (ian) using the file or
directory. The
fuser command shows the user and process id
using the /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001 filesystem, but not the
specific open file or directory.
Normally you would use this information to cleanly close the open process
or window using the filesystem. On some Linux systems there is also an
-L option to
umount that allows a lazy
unmount where the filesystem is detached from the filesystem hierarchy
immediately, and all references to the filesystem are cleaned up when the
filesystem is no longer busy. On OpenSUSE 11.3 this option is not
available, so you need to clean up the filesystem references, either by
terminating the offending processes or by ensuring they are no longer
using affected resources, before unmounting.
We mentioned back in Listing 14 that the OpenSUSE system does not support
command line use of
umount for a device that was mounted from
the desktop, so we attacked the problem by using root authority. There is
another approach using the
halmount command to unmount the
device. HAL is a Hardware Abstraction Layer, which provides a
consistent application interface to various hardware devices. If you use
halmount, you will still be unable to unmount a busy device.
Listing 17 shows how to use
halmount and then switch to
root to forcibly
terminate the process that is keeping the disc busy. Note that killing the
process in this way may cause data loss, so we do not recommend it unless
you are sure you will not lose data. We then switch back to normal user
mode and use
halmount to unmount the filesystem that is no
longer busy. Finally we use
eject to open the drawer and
eject the DVD.
Listing 17. Using halmount, kill, and eject
ian@lyrebird:~> halmount -u /dev/sr0 /dev/sr0: org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.Busy: umount: /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702 ..001: device is busy. ian@lyrebird:~> lsof /dev/sr0 COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME bash 3824 ian cwd DIR 11,0 2048 2048 /media/openSUSE-DVD-x86_64.0702..001/ boot ian@lyrebird:~> su - Password: lyrebird:~ # kill -9 3824 lyrebird:~ # ps -ef | grep 3824 root 5542 5507 0 22:47 pts/2 00:00:00 grep 3824 lyrebird:~ # logout ian@lyrebird:~> halmount -u /dev/sr0 ian@lyrebird:~> eject /dev/sr0
We hope this brief introduction to removable media use on Linux will help you enjoy your removable media files and avoid data loss.
The tasks of logging out, locking your screen, shutting down, and restarting the system are usually related in the sense that they are accessed from the same or similar menus. Frequently your distribution will add a quick launch button to access these tasks. If not, you can add one yourself.
OpenSUSE logout
To log out, click Start and then Leave. You will see a menu like Figure 27 with options for logging out, locking the screen, and shutting down or restarting the system. Click the appropriate selection.
Figure 27. Adding a logout button with Red Hat enterprise Linux 3
You will also see icons for leave and lock at the bottom right of the OpenSUSE panel. Click the Leave icon on the right, and you will see a dialog box like Figure 28. Again, make your selection.
Figure 28. Using the OpenSUSE panel logout icon
You access Ubuntu logout and restart functions from a panel icon at the right end of the top Ubuntu panel. This icon is similar to the Leave icon on OpenSUSE. Click it to reveal a dialog similar to Figure 29 where you can make your choice.
Figure 29. Using the Ubuntu panel logout icon
Fedora logout
Access the Fedora logout and restart functions from the System menu on the top panel as shown in Figure 30. Your choices are similar to the OpenSUSE and Ubuntu choices that you have seen above.
Figure 30. Logging out of the Fedora GNOME desktop
Adding a logout button to your panel
Fedora does not install a panel icon for logout or screen lock similar to those on OpenSUSE or Ubuntu. However, you can add your own quite easily.
Start by right-clicking a blank part of the panel. From the context menu, select Add to Panel..., and you will see a selection of items that you may add. Scroll down to the Log Out selection and click on it to add it to your panel. You can add the Lock Screen icon in the same manner.
Figure 31. Adding a logout button to the Fedora GNOME desktop
A logout icon will be added to your panel.
If an application is not in the list, and you can start it from the Applications menu or you can open the menu to the point where you would start the application, then right-click to open a context menu that includes choices to add a launcher to the panel or to your desktop.
Adding users and groups
Sometimes you will need to define new users of your system and new groups for those users. For example, you may need to define a user called mqm and a group also called mqm (as well as another group called mqbrkrs when installing the embedded messaging component in WebSphere Application Server), or you may need to create users to administer databases.
If you do not specify a user number, graphical tools will usually assign the next available user number. For Fedora and Red Hat systems, user numbers start at 500, so the user you created when you installed your system is probably user 500. For OpenSUSE and Ubuntu, the numbers start at 1000. If you use the same id on several systems as I do, you will probably find it convenient to use the same id and group numbers on each system too.
For the purpose of this section, we will add a user called
testuser with id 2000 and group 2000. Usually you will define
the group first and then define the users who will use the group, so
that's what we will do here. You can either use the graphical tools for
user administration or enter commands in a terminal window. We'll give an
overview of the graphical process here using OpenSUSE's
system administration tools. Then we'll tell you where to find the
corresponding tools on a Fedora or Ubuntu system.
Finally we'll give you the commands if you really want
to do it from the command line.
Adding users and groups to your OpenSUSE system
On an OpenSUSE system with KDE, you access the YaST (Yet Another System Tool) control center using Start->Applications, then select System and scroll down to Administrator Settings as shown in Figure 32.
Figure 32. YaST2 Control Center
Open this application and click Security and users in the left panel to view the tasks shown in the main panel of Figure 33.
Figure 33. YaST2 Control Center
Select User and Group Management. If you have not recently received root authority, you will be prompted for the root password. On the next screen, you will see any existing users. Select the Groups tab, and you will see something like Figure 34.
Figure 34. Group list in YaST2 Control Center
Click the Add button to add a new group. You will see something like Figure 35. Note that there are a number of groups that were created when you installed your system. Enter 'testuser' for the Group Name and '2000' for the Group ID. Click OK to return to the group list display and see the new group listed. At this point your group has not yet been saved to the system, so it will be lost if you cancel.
Figure 35. Adding a group in YaST2 Control Center
Click the Users tab to return to the user display, then click Add to add a new user. Enter 'Test User' for the User's Full Name, 'testuser' for the User Name, then type and retype an initial password for the user. See Figure 36.
Figure 36. Adding a user in YaST2 Control Center
Click on the Details tab and enter '2000' for the User ID (uid), and select 'testuser' from the Default Group drop-down menu. This panel is where you can change the default home directory and default login shell, among other items. You can also select additional groups that this user will be a member of. When you have finished, click OK to return to the list of users where you will see your new user. Click OK, and YaST will process all your changes and save them to the system.
Figure 37. User details in YaST2 Control Center
Adding users and groups to your Fedora or Ubuntu system
On GNOME systems, such as our Fedora and Ubuntu systems, you start user management from the System->Administration->Users and Groups menu as shown in Figure 38.
Figure 38. Starting user and group management on GNOME
However, Fedora and Ubuntu have different dialogs once you open the User
and Group management. Fedora starts the
application, while Ubuntu starts the
users-admin application.
We'll illustrate the Fedora usage here and then summarize the differences
for Ubuntu.
If you are not logged in or recently authenticated as root, you will need to provide the root password when prompted. You will then see the User Manager screen, opened at the Users tab as in Figure 39. By default, only normal users and groups are shown. To view system users and groups, uncheck the Hide system users and groups checkbox under Edit->Preferences.
Figure 39. Fedora User Manager
We could do as we did above for the OpenSUSE system and define our groups
first. However, the Red Hat User Manager has a convenient feature that
lets you create a private group for a user with the group name being the
same as the user name. So click the Add User button and
fill in the details for the
testuser user as for OpenSUSE
above. However, this time, check the Specify user ID
manually and Specify group ID manually check
boxes and fill in 2000 for each of these values. Our screen now looks like
Figure 40.
Figure 40. Adding a user in Fedora
After you click OK, you will return to the User Manager. Your new user will already be added to the system, unlike the case for OpenSUSE. Click Add Group to add any additional groups you may need. To make users members of additional groups, you can either select a group and use its properties to add users or select a user and use the properties to add groups. When you are done with properties, click OK to return to User Manager and then File->Quit to close the User Manager.
Ubuntu user manager
Now that you are familiar with adding users on both OpenSUSE and Fedora,
you will be able to manage the Ubuntu process. In general, Ubuntu will
lead you through the process of adding a user and set up the user with a
default id and group. Once you have added
testuser in this
way, you should see a screen like Figure 41.
Figure 41. User management in Ubuntu
At this point you will need to use the Manage Groups
button to add the new group (or you could add it before you add the user).
Once you have added the
testuser group, you will need to come
back to the screen of Figure 41,
select the
testuser id, and click the
Advanced button to change both the id number and
primary group for the user.
Adding users and groups using the command line
You can add or change users and groups from the command line. These tasks require root authority.
Information on groups is stored as a flat file in /etc/group. You may use
groupadd command to add a new group. This is fairly
simple. Adding a new user is a little more complex as there are more
parameters, and you will need the numerical number of the user's group.
Let's use the
groupadd command to add our
testuser group, with group id 2000, and then use the
grep command to search /etc/group and verify the settings.
Note: If you do not provide a group id, the system
will assign the next one that is higher than any existing group id.
root@pinguino:~# groupadd -g 2000 testuser root@pinguino:~# grep testuser /etc/group testuser:x:2000:
As you see, the
testuser group is 2000. Now let's use the
useradd command to add the
testuser user. The
-c option allows us to specify a comment that is usually a
user's real name. The
-u option allows us to specify the
numerical id (2000) for the user. The
-d option allows us to
specify the home directory for the user. The
-g option
specifies the user's primary group. Here we use 2000, which is the
testuser group we just created. The last option we use is the
-G option to specify additional groups for this user. Here we
can use the group name. In this case, we'll add
testuser to
the group
Once you have added the user, you can use the
grep command
again, and you will see that user
testuser has been added to
testuser and
ian groups. At this point you
have created a new user, but the user does not have a password and cannot
log on to the system. Some users do not need to log on, so that would be
alright for those users. The root user has the authority to set (or reset)
passwords for other users. To do this, you use the
command and give the username as a parameter. You will be prompted for the
new password, and then you will be prompted to retype it for
root@pinguino:~# useradd -c"Test User" -u 2000 -d/home/testuser -g 2000 -G ian \ > testuser root@pinguino:~# grep testuser /etc/group ian:x:1000:testuser testuser:x:2000: root@pinguino:~# passwd testuser Enter new UNIX password: Retype new UNIX password: passwd: password updated successfully
Finally, you may need to add users to an existing group. You can use the
usermod command to do this, but you need the list of existing
groups for the user as you will replace the list of additional groups. It
is often easier to edit /etc/group directly. Make a backup copy first,
just in case you make a mistake. To add the editor user to both the ian
and testuser groups, edit /etc/group and update the lines for ian and
testuser so they look as follows:
ian:x:1000:testuser,editor testuser:x:2000:editor
You will find much of the user information is stored in /etc/passwd, but
you should not edit this file yourself. Use the
usermod, and
userdel commands instead. If you
are not a full time system administrator, you will probably find it easier
to do occasional manipulation of users and groups through the graphical
Downloadable resources
Related topics
- For help with more advanced Linux development tasks, take a look at the developerWorks roadmap for LPIC-1. The roadmap leads to many developerWorks articles to help you study for LPIC-1 certification based on the April 2009 objectives.
- Customize your own prompts with "Prompt magic" (developerWorks, September 2000).
- In the developerWorks Linux zone, find hundreds of how-to articles and tutorials, as well as downloads, discussion forums, and a wealth of other resources for Linux developers and administrators.
- Evaluate IBM products in the way that suits you best: Download a product trial, try a product online, use a product in a cloud environment.
- Follow developerWorks on Twitter, or subscribe to a feed of Linux tweets on developerWorks.


text:
Big rise in Americans with diabetes, especially in South | Reuters:
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO, Nov 15 (Reuters) – A breakdown of U.S. diabetes cases shows dramatic increases in the number of people diagnosed with diabetes overall between 1995 and 2010, with especially sharp increases among people in the South and in Appalachian states.
According to a study released on Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of diagnosed cases of diabetes grew by 50 percent or more in 42 U.S. states, and by 100 percent or more in 18 states.
In 2010, 18.8 million Americans had been diagnosed with diabetes and another 7 million had undetected diabetes, according to the CDC.
States with the largest increases over the 16-year period were Oklahoma, up 226 percent; Kentucky, up 158 percent; Georgia, up 145 percent; Alabama, up 140 percent, Washington, up 135 percent, and West Virginia, up 131 percent, according to the study published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
"Regionally, we saw the largest increase in diagnosed diabetes prevalence in the South, followed by the West, Midwest, and Northeast," Linda Geiss, a statistician with CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation and lead author of the report, said in a statement.
The findings reinforce data from other studies showing that southern and Appalachian states were experiencing the biggest regional gains in diabetes diagnoses, Geiss said.
Although much of the increase in the number of people diagnosed with diabetes is likely due to more people developing the condition, the study also notes that diabetes treatments have improved, which may mean that more people are living longer with their disease.
Type 2 diabetes, which can be prevented through lifestyle changes, accounts for 90 percent to 95 percent of all diabetes cases in the United States, according to the CDC.
"These rates will continue to increase until effective interventions and policies are implemented to prevent both diabetes and obesity," Ann Albright, director of CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation, said in a statement.
Globally, there are now 371 million people living with diabetes, up from 366 million a year ago, according to the latest report by the International Diabetes Federation, up from 366 million a year ago.
Without significant lifestyle changes, the group projects as many as 552 million will have diabetes by 2030. (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)


text:
Merlin Olsen Suit: Asbestos Caused My Cancer
Football legend Merlin Olsen is suing NBC Studios, NBC Universal, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Sherwin Williams, Lennox Industries and other companies, claiming he developed a rare form of cancer as a result of being negligently exposed to asbestos.
Olsen -- who gained fame as a member of the Los Angeles Rams and went on to be a sportscaster, actor and spokesperson for FTD Florists -- was diagnosed with the rare asbestos cancer mesothelioma a few months ago.
filed today in L.A. County Superior Court, Olsen worked after school doing manual labor when he was 10 or 11 and was exposed to asbestos.
Olsen claims he was exposed to asbestos later in life when he was doing drywall. Olsen also worked at NBC and 20th Century FOX and is alleging those companies negligently exposed him to asbestos.
Olsen, who is undergoing chemotherapy, claims in the suit that all of the defendants, "were engaged in the business of manufacturing, fabricating, designing, assembling, distributing, leasing, buying, selling, inspecting, servicing, installing, repairing, marketing, warranting and advertising a certain substance the generic name of which is asbestos."
Olsen says in the lawsuit that mesothelioma "is a vicious, painful, and invariably fatal malignancy" and there is no known cure.
Olsen and his wife Susan are suing for unspecified damages.
Waiting for your permission to load the comments.


text:
Our audiologists and hearing aid specialists stay current on advanced hearing aid technology.
American Hearing + Audiology
At our hearing center in Independence, MO, we share in your goal of achieving better hearing. As an independent practice, we specialize in personalized hearing evaluations, hearing aid fitting and dispensing, advanced hearing aid technology, tinnitus treatment and much more to ensure all of your hearing needs are met and exceeded.
Find Our Office in Independence, MO
Let's Talk About Your Hearing
Schedule your hearing evaluation or request information on our services.
Our Hearing Care Staff Serving Independence
Kristen McCorkle-Smith
For All of Your Hearing Care Needs
Our audiologists specialize in fitting and programming hearing devices. Should it be determined that hearing aids are your best option, we'll help you choose hearing aids that fit your needs, lifestyle, and budget.
Getting You to Say "I CAN HEAR"
Digital Hearing Aids
Absolute Free Trial
We allow you to try new hearing aids absolutely free without money down or obligation to purchase.
Price Match Promise
You get the right hearing aids for you at the absolute best price, and they are programmed correctly.


text:
South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone appeared at Microsoft's E3 press conference today to show off their new South Park game, The Stick of Truth.
Riffing on the interconnected, multi-screen theme of Microsoft's presentation, Parker asked the house, "How many times have you been watching an episode of South Park and thought, 'I'd like to be able to watch this on my television, while hooked into my mobile device, which is controlled by my tablet device, which is hooked into my oven,' all while sitting in the refrigerator?"
Happily, I haven't had to sit in the fridge since moving to an apartment with central air. But Parker makes a point. It's only a matter of time before our houses out-compute us all.


text:
Our percher hat, Solveig, features a hand beaded design.
A popular percher design which is very easy to wear, attaching with a fine millinery headband.
The hat modelled in shown in 'Deep Forest'.
Collections: AW19, COCKTAIL HATS
We make all our hats to order and to measure, fitting all shapes and head sizes.
Take a tape measure around the widest part of your head; from the forehead around the widest part of your head and back to meet the forehead. Don't pull too tight on the tape or your hat will be too tight. It is useful to insert your pinky under the tape to allow for a little room when measuring.
Hats should be worn; however a headpiece which has a solid base of 4 inches (10cm) or more in diameter covering a sufficient area of the head is acceptable as an alternative to a hat.
Fascinators are not permitted
A hat, headpiece or fascinator should be worn at all times.


text:
Fire Pump Enclosure
Get in Touch
02 9542 1111
02 9542 1211
Mon - Fri 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
61 Johnston Avenue, Kirrawee NSW 2232
About us
Matt Slick has been in the metal roofing industry for over 20 years and has extensive knowledge. Matt has excellent product knowledge, is upfront and honest and will always provide the best competitive price. He believes that with high quality products and installation, this will assure you a longer lasting roof.


text:
Re: Mandalorian Ink. Fett Tatts.. A painful pleasure
oh how i wish i had a tattoo, just not sure of what to get. everyone's tats here are all so very cool and such (even the non-fett ones).
So, did you make up your mind? Got anything done finally??
At some point I was thinking about getting a Grim Reaper somewhere, probably behind a shoulder or something. It's not really "me" anymore though. Now I really don't know what I'd get. Not sure what symbol would mean enough to me to have it on me for life. I'd probably rather go with an airbrush on an object. One same object can be used everyday for several years, 10, maybe more. That's already a lot of time to "carry your brand label", it's still unique and yours, but it's changeable and removable.
I still think your tats are fantastic, people though.


text:
Brian K. Balser Co. LPA
5311 Meadow Ln Ct
Elyria, OH 44035
(440) 934-0044
Just another WordPress site
5311 Meadow Ln Ct
Elyria, OH 44035
(440) 934-0044
My firm has been built on the foundation of successfully representing those seriously injured and families who have suffered the loss of loved ones as a result of negligence (actions) of others. The success of my firm comes from the individual and dedicated attention I give to each client.
I am selective in the cases that I accept, which allows me to provide the necessary resources, time, and detailed attention to be successful. From day one, each client receives individual attention from an attorney, not a paralegal or case manager. Whether it is a large pharmaceutical company, a local health care provider, or a distracted driver that has caused the injury or death, I give personal attention to each client. It is this personal attention that builds the foundation for success.
Contact Brian K. Balser Co. LPA today for the personal attention your injury case needs and deserves.
The foundation of Brian's success in representing victims in medical, auto, drug, and medical device cases for more than 25 years is in the personal attention that each client and case receives.


text:
Roosevelt Island PS/IS 217 PTA, Principal & Brownie Girl Scouts Honored By Council Member Ben Kallos At State Of The District Address
Roosevelt Island's NYC Council Member Ben Kallos held his State of the District address last Sunday, January 10.
Roosevelt Island resident Christina Delfico shares these photos and reports on the Kallos State of the District Address:
City Council Member Ben Kallos honored PS IS 217, Girl Scout troop leaders Janine Schaefer, and Aiesha Eleusizov, and Roosevelt Islanders at his State of the District event on January 10, 2016 for winning the 2015 Participatory Budget Vote. Roosevelt Island's community garnered half a million dollars towards the STEM Green Roof Project.
There were loud cheers when Principal Beckman and PTA president Olga Shchuchinov were mentioned along with 217 students and the Brownies and Girl Scouts from troops 3001, 3244 and 3245 for their winning efforts.
Also, Roosevelt Island Brownie Girl Scout Emily Eleusizov discussed school lunch quality with Council Member Kallos.
The hour long event was attended by the Manhattan Borough President Brewer, Assembly Member Seawright, Senator Krueger, and Comptroller Scott Stringer who enjoyed several photos of Roosevelt Islanders and 217 on the big screen. What a great way to start 2016.
Click here for the January 2016 State of the District newsletter from Mr. Kallos.
City Council Member Ben Kallos honored Roosevelt Island's PS/IS 217 and Girl Scout troops 3001, 3244 and 3245 at his...
Posted by Girl Scouts of Greater New York on Monday, January 11, 2016


text:
November 29, 2005Iraq
It is the question of the moment in Washington: How and when should the United States begin drawing down its forces in Iraq and turning over more responsibility for that nation's security to local fo…
October 8, 2005Public Health Threats and Pandemics
Fears of bird flu dominated last week's headlines. First, scientists announced their discovery October 5 that the 1918 outbreak of influenza, which killed 50 million people, was caused by bird flu th…
March 10, 2009United States
Six experts weigh in on the consequences for the U.S. economy if Congress creates a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system.
January 20, 2010Homeland Security
Four experts discuss how legal and political developments should affect the Obama administration's promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
September 24, 2010Saudi Arabia
Four experts discuss the merits of the Obama administration's proposed $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
July 13, 2009Race and Ethnicity
Five South Asia experts assess the importance of solving the Kashmir dispute in relation to U.S. security interests in the region and what policies the Obama administration should pursue.
January 4, 2006United States
Should the domestic spying of U.S. "persons" be permitted? If it is "critical to saving lives," then yes, argues President Bush. He further says that shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks Con…
December 27, 2016Global
In the wake of a turbulent 2016, four experts analyze what's in store for the global economy in the coming year, from China's rebalancing efforts to the rise of populism in Europe.