Newbie requiring help turning off autologin

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Sunny Rio

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I know virtually nothing about Linux, I use Windows all the time. I only have Linux on two virtual machines (to run a particular program which requires Linux) and on one Mac laptop (because hell will freeze over before I touch Mac OS). It's XUbuntu 20.

The problem is the Mac laptop. I somehow managed to install a program to make Linux accept RDP (the Windows built in remote desktop thing), so I can actually view and control it from my main Windows machine in the house (the laptop is one of nine machines in the garage and I need to look at them all a couple of times a day to monitor programs they're running). The trouble is either the program or Linux itself has a limitation - I can't log in remotely with the same user who is logged in locally. Doesn't seem to bother Windows, but it bothers the laptop. I just get kicked off the remote session with no reason given. So I have to go log out of the laptop physically, and again another day if it's restarted.

Trouble is, when I installed Linux I chose to autologin. I want to turn that off so on powerup it sits at the login screen. The program I run on it runs as a service so shouldn't be affected. Everything I google tells me to click things which aren't there on my laptop. If I go to users, there is no autologin button.

Is there perhaps a command I can type in to change it? I found something, but it involved editing a load of configuration files, which aren't there, or it's not showing them - does Linux maybe have a "don't show system files" default like Windows?
 


As a regular user, lots of files will be hidden from you, especially system files, you need to use sudo, or be the root user.

To turn off autologin......

Enable or Disable Automatic Login in Ubuntu 20.04 - techPiezo

Automatic login - a user can log in without password at the end of boot process. With display manager, enable or disable automatic login in Ubuntu 20.04.
techpiezo.com techpiezo.com
 
I wish I was the root user. I managed it on the two virtual machines (actually one is just a clone of the other) but it was very complicated. Amazing how many people said NO! DANGER! NUCLEAR WAR! NEVER USE ROOT! My computer, I want access! It doesn't blow up Windows when I have full admin rights. Is there an easy way to switch on root?

I shall try the suggestion in your link later, although I think that may be the one I couldn't before, due to not being able to get at the required files. At the moment, the power pack blew up, there's one in the post, or I might be able to fix this one - I think it just popped the surge protector in it. It currently blows the plug fuse and makes a sharp crack, which I know is a MOV sparking inside.
 
Got my new (Fake! No money for Apple!) power adapter, so I tried the above.
Turning off autologin worked, thanks camtaf.
However logging in as root - I'm using lightdm, so the graphical bit isn't correct. How do I do it for lightdm?
 
Nevermind, found it here:
askubuntu.com

How to run a complete GUI as root?

I don't care if I mess up the system (which is likely if I do things like this), or the potential security issues that this could imply. Note, that I don't just want to "enable root login?", but ru...
askubuntu.com askubuntu.com
 
Glad ya got it sorted. Assuming that it was you who left the comment, you have a response. ;-)
 
Yes that was me. It's nice to find someone (the people in here and over there) who doesn't think logging in as root is the same as starting a nuclear war.
 
Sunny Rio said:
who doesn't think logging in as root is the same as starting a nuclear war.
Click to expand...
It's not quite that bad. At least you're not harming others like a nuke would....;)
 
Sunny Rio said:
Yes that was me. It's nice to find someone (the people in here and over there) who doesn't think logging in as root is the same as starting a nuclear war.
Click to expand...

It's your computer. You can do what you want. If that works for you, that works for you.

But... The onus is on you to keep your crap squared away. Meaning, you need to ensure you're not infected with malware because that effects other people. If you're a spam relay, an open proxy, etc. then that impacts other people.

So long as you're not doing that, you're all good by me. That goes for everything, more or less.
 
Every Windows machine is basically logged in as root. If there were open relays, they'd be stuck on those.

I haven't a clue about Linux or email systems, so if there was an open relay on there, I wouldn't know. But I assume those can't just get on there without me visiting dodgy sites and stuff. And the ISP router blocks stuff too. And if there was an open relay, I think my ISP would get very angry very quickly.

As for nuclear wars, I found a video on Youtube where they'd bleeped out "nuclear war" but not "gaybar"!
 
Sunny Rio said:
But I assume those can't just get on there without me visiting dodgy sites and stuff.
Click to expand...

As browsers run in containers these days, you're pretty safe browsing the worst of the worst websites.

So long as you keep your computer updated, there's not too much to worry about beyond that. Though, it's a good idea to know and trust software sources before blindly installing applications. But, you're pretty safe with that as much of what you need will be right there in the default repositories.

Even though you're running as root, software still needs elevated permissions to install. Other software will require that you set an exeucutable bit, so there's not much to worry about unless you work at being insecure.
 
Heh... I wrote tomorrow's article. I gave out more horrible advice, that is how to do things you're "not supposed to do".
 
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