[mythtv-users] Autologin for root

[Tony Maro]

Mike Wood wrote:

> I'll jump in here to say that I need to log on as root because I can't 
> get hardware decoding to work on my EPIA unless I run mythfrontend as 
> root.  Anything else and as soon as I go to watch TV mythfrontend 
> crashes.  I'd absolutely love to fix that, but in the mean time, I may 
> try this out as a compromise.
>
>
>
> IvanK. wrote:
>
>> Bad idea.  Very Bad.  Very very Bad :-)
>>
>> How many more times do I have to repeat this before I drive the point 
>> home?
>>
>> Better spend some extra time resolving why things don't work for 
>> non-root users, than open this huge hole.  Usually it's a matter of 
>> permissions.  Could you be a little more specific what it is that 
>> doesn't work?
>>
>> IvanK.
>
If everyone started logging in as root, it's the same as running Windows 
98... ;-)

And that's one _major_ reason people are so passionate about not logging 
in as root.

The other reason is you are more likely to cause damage yourself if you 
are logged in as root and mess up a command or some such...

And of course security, but in today's world of being behind a recent 
Linksys router or such, as I'm sure it is, that's likely not a problem.

That said, I don't log in as root, however I wouldn't hesitate to do it 
on my TV as a workaround to the problems mentioned.  I mean, it's the 
freakin' TV, you know?  It's not like my financial info is on it. :-)

This describes setting up auto-login with kdm, however I dunno if the 
same method is used for root.
http://www.ltsp.org/contrib/autologin_kdm.html


-Tony