Initial Setup of a Linux CentOS5 / RHEL5 System

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Revision as of 10:33, 18 March 2009 by Jkh (Talk | contribs)

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Running Linux straight out of the box is a bit of a raw experience. I make a number of tweaks after the initial install. I'm going to document these tweaks here.

Never login as root!

During the install, there will be a place to create an account. Create an account there. Login with the account you created during the install.

Get sudo working for your account.

Once you are logged in, start a "Terminal". Type su, type the root password. This will be the first and last time you type "su". Now, edit /etc/sudoers. Find the line

## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
root    ALL=(ALL)       ALL

and add you account:

## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
root    ALL=(ALL)       ALL
jkh     ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:     ALL

I add the "NOPASSWD:" option, this allows you to run sudo with out typing your password. Many people would argue that this is a security problem. Just make sure that your password is strong.

## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
root    ALL=(ALL)       ALL
jkh     ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:     ALL

Since the /etc/sudoers is not "writeable" by anyone, to save the file you must use ":w!" followed by ":q". Now exit "su" with "Ctrl-D".

Add yum repositories.

Running Linux

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