antiX-forum

Good evening, all. I'm new to antiX and to using Linux in general. Installed antiX 8.2 over the weekend, looks good so far except:

1) I'm looking for the root password that allows me unrestricted access to my own machine. I did accurately copy down the one I needed to supply during the install process, but for some things it works (such as logging into the Synaptic Package Manager) and for some things that one doesn't work (such as trying to save a file I've edited outside of my home area /TKS4302).

2) I'm trying to do such an ignorant thing because I tried to install Kontact and Amarok via Synaptic, was told that it couldn't do so because of a couple of dependencies it needed that weren't going to be done (I think KDE runtimes was one of them, can't recall the others just now), so I believed that meant I needed to add one or more repositories to my list and try again --- as I said, I'm a newbie, figured I'd just go with it a bit and see where I landed). I added enough additional repositories (not knowing any better) that I'm now getting the following dialog when I try to access the repository list:

e: Dynamic MMap ran out of room. Please increase the size of APT::Cache-Limit. Current value: 20000000. (man 5 apt.conf)
E: Error occurred while processing lordsawar (NewVersion1)
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/
ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report

I googled the APT::Cache-Limit phrase and soon found an article on how to fix this, which suggested upping the 20000000 to something larger to allow opening the list. So I began using the file management apps (RoxFiler and PCmanFM) trying to edit the referenced file, etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf, and can't save the changes due to the above-mentioned inability to get the machine to believe that I am, in fact, its owner.

Could someone please help me out of my several self-inflicted difficulties? Any assistance appreciated.

Thank you.

Firstly, welcome to antiX.

For 2:
Fron the menu, click on 'Run' and in it type
gksu leafpad /etc/apt/apt.conf (You will be prompted for the root password)

Then change to read APT::Cache-Limit 40000000;

Thanks for your reply. I'm trying to do that and not sure what I'm seeing.

I do exactly what you say, click on Run and type the gksu command as above, and respond to the root password request with the one I set as I was installing antiX. When I do that, the password-request dialog disappears, flashes back in-place extremely briefly, and then disappears again with no sign that I can see of any other effect or action. I never get any sort of edit-window or other dialog except for exactly what I just described.

Any thoughts?

Hello tks4302 and Welcome to Antix:

In order to save a file outside of your home directory, try opening a terminal, type su (for superuser) and you'll see the password prompt. enter your password and you'll see a prompt something like

>root@whatevername

At this point you can use cp file /whatever/directory to copy a file.

I hope this helps. However, I'm always careful when saving (or modifying) application files or system files. I keep all my data/document files in my home directory, and let the rest for the system. Less likely to break something this way.

Pedro

To be root in a terminal you just need to to what Pedro said or open the menu>applications>applications>terminal emulators>xterm as root.

I think the command anti pretended to post was

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gksu leafpad /etc/apt/apt.conf

To run graphical applications as root it's better to use the gksu (or gksudo if sudo is enabled) command than only su or sudo.

If you're used to the sudo command you can set the sudoers file by running

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visudo

in a root terminal and then adding the following line

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%users ALL=(ALL) ALL

If you just want to be able to open pcmanfm (the file manager) as root from its Tool menu, add the following line to the sudoers file

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yourusername ALL = /usr/bin/pcmanfm

"Leafpad" !! That's what I was missing. Thanks to all, I've adjusted that cache-size, Synaptic is working fine, and on to the next newbie-problem. Have a good evening.