Shutdown for non-root doesn't work

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Shutdown for non-root doesn't work
started by: Ublis

Posted by Ublis on Nov. 21 2004,16:56

Hello, I've succeeded in installing DSL on an old 200 MHz K6 PC with 2 GB HD, after trying out Morphix Lite and a custom light install of MDK10 - DSL is faster than the other two and I like it best, even though it was originally my third choice.

On to the question.

I have DSL installed on a 1.3 GB hda1 partition, with a 250 MB swap on hda6 and a 350 MB ext2 on hda5 for user docs/settings. I've messed around with it until I got /home to sit and stay on hda5, thanks to some posts on these forums.
My problem now is that it is impossible for any user but root to shutdown from the menu - it simply doesn't do anything. If I close the GUI part from the menu, the console behaves weirdly (text doesn't appear on the screen, or the first letter is eaten), but it's possible to logout, log in as root and then shutdown.
All users were added using the AddUser menu item in DSL.

How can I fix this?

Posted by roberts on Nov. 21 2004,17:25

If you look at the shutdown command when called from the menu, it is a "sudo" command. If you want other users to be able to "sudo" commands, then add them to the file /etc/sudoers

Posted by Ublis on Nov. 21 2004,17:42

Thanks, that works.

But now I need to click the menu twice. First time the PC beeps and doesn't do anything, second time it shuts down.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 24 2004,16:53

hmmmmmmm, have you tried waiting a few secs. welcome to the forum btw

Posted by samsocal on Nov. 06 2005,21:55

I'm fairly new to linux and DSL is my first attempt to learn. I tried 1.5 and was impressed, now I'm experimenting with 2.0. I also had the same problem with shutting down from non root users but I found that I can shut down as follows:

1. From the menu I issue the shutdown or reboot command.
2. I hit ctrl-alt-del.
3. type 'exit' or 'logout'
4. then I login as root

Not sure if this is kosher, but it seems to work consistently.

As a side note, I've noticed that when I'm root, I can get the computer to shutdown fastest by unmounting my hard drive and then typing 'shutdown -nr now'. Seems much faster than the menu shutdown/reboot.

samsocal