Minor setup issues

[William A. Mahaffey III]

.... I have my shiny new NetBSD 6.1.5 server up & running, all RAID
devices working AOK, several reboots completed, swap configured, etc.
All is well except for a few pilot errors. Following recommendations I
now login to root by su, rather than directly at the console. When I do,
none of my aliases get set & filename completion using the tab key
doesn't work. This isn't huge, but is irritating. All is well logging in
at the console, although the screen is limited to 80 chars/line & 25
lines, which restricts what you can see in crowded directories. I am
ssh-ing in as my regular user, BTW, that probably makes a difference.
When fully operational, there will be no kbd/mouse/monitor hooked up, so
I do need to get this either fixed or understood. TIA & have a good one.


--

William A. Mahaffey III

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war
ever devised by man."
-- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.


--
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[Greg Troxel]

"William A. Mahaffey III" <w...@hiwaay.net> writes:

> Following recommendations I now login to root by su, rather than
> directly at the console. When I do, none of my aliases get set &
> filename completion using the tab key doesn't work.

man su, see -m

install and then man sudo, see -E

I use "sudo -E $(SHELL)", more or less, to get a shell that's just like
mine, but with uid 0.

[Gerard Lally]

On Wed, 15 Jul 2015 11:18:48 +0000
"William A. Mahaffey III" wrote:
>
> .... I have my shiny new NetBSD 6.1.5 server up & running, all RAID
> devices working AOK, several reboots completed, swap configured, etc.
> All is well except for a few pilot errors. Following recommendations
> I now login to root by su, rather than directly at the console. When
> I do, none of my aliases get set & filename completion using the tab
> key doesn't work. This isn't huge, but is irritating.

You're probably using sh. If so you will need the following options in
.shrc:

set -o emacs
set -o tabcomplete

NetBSD also has ksh which is, as far as I know, pdksh under the hood. A
better korn shell clone is mksh, available in pkgsrc.

> All is well logging in at the console, although the screen is limited
> to 80 chars/line & 25 lines, which restricts what you can see in
> crowded directories. I am ssh-ing in as my regular user, BTW, that
> probably makes a difference. When fully operational, there will be no
> kbd/mouse/monitor hooked up, so I do need to get this either fixed or
> understood.

I found the best way to deal with the console is to specify a vesa mode
in /boot.cfg. When booting, choose 5 to drop to a prompt and type "vesa
list". This will give you a list of vesa modes supported by your
hardware. For example, 0x14b. You then type "vesa 0x14b" and then "boot".

You can then add your chosen mode to /boot.cfg as follows:

menu=Boot normally:rndseed /var/db/entropy-file;vesa 0x14b;boot netbsd

--
Gerard Lally

[William A. Mahaffey III]

On 07/15/15 12:24, Greg Troxel wrote:
> "William A. Mahaffey III" <w...@hiwaay.net> writes:
>

>> Following recommendations I now login to root by su, rather than
>> directly at the console. When I do, none of my aliases get set &
>> filename completion using the tab key doesn't work.

> man su, see -m
>
> install and then man sudo, see -E
>
> I use "sudo -E $(SHELL)", more or less, to get a shell that's just like
> mine, but with uid 0.

What is the PKG_PATH for sudo, I have several commented out, which do I
use ?

4256EE1 # uname -a
NetBSD 4256EE1.CFD.COM 6.1.5 NetBSD 6.1.5 (GENERIC) amd64
4256EE1 #

[Dan LaBell]

On Jul 15, 2015, at 5:29 PM, William A. Mahaffey III wrote:

> On 07/15/15 12:24, Greg Troxel wrote:

>> "William A. Mahaffey III" <w...@hiwaay.net> writes:
>>

>>> Following recommendations I now login to root by su, rather than
>>> directly at the console. When I do, none of my aliases get set &
>>> filename completion using the tab key doesn't work.

>> man su, see -m
>>
>> install and then man sudo, see -E
>>
>> I use "sudo -E $(SHELL)", more or less, to get a shell that's just
>> like
>> mine, but with uid 0.
>

I think this has to be a typo, command substitution is not warranted
$SHELL or ${SHELL} is what's meant, also I think, you just try '-l'
w/ su , or "sue tack el". and not "Install, [and configure], and then
man sudo "
You're the only admin for this system? Sudo would have use your user
login password to get root, not root's password.

Also, I'd recommend against "su -m" "leaving environment unchanged."
I'd say remember that exists, to rescue a broken .profile etc, but avoid
habitual use, and just change the directory, after becoming root.
You want your profile read, right? Not changes to PATH, etc done at
command line?

[Dan LaBell]

On Jul 15, 2015, at 12:11 PM, William A. Mahaffey III wrote:

> I now login to root by su, rather than directly at the console.
> When I do, none of my aliases get set & filename completion using
> the tab key doesn't work. This isn't huge, but is irritating.

To get a login shell do, su -l
Also, if ssh'ing from remote to a user, just to su, then 'exec su -
l', can be useful. Historically, it was 'su -'. sometimes said,
"sue dash"

I'd consider unsetting ENV, in your profile ( and everywhere,
actually ).

[William A. Mahaffey III]

On 07/15/15 21:50, Dan LaBell wrote:
>
> On Jul 15, 2015, at 5:29 PM, William A. Mahaffey III wrote:
>
>> On 07/15/15 12:24, Greg Troxel wrote:
>>> "William A. Mahaffey III" <w...@hiwaay.net> writes:
>>>
>>>> Following recommendations I now login to root by su, rather than
>>>> directly at the console. When I do, none of my aliases get set &
>>>> filename completion using the tab key doesn't work.
>>> man su, see -m
>>>
>>> install and then man sudo, see -E
>>>
>>> I use "sudo -E $(SHELL)", more or less, to get a shell that's just like
>>> mine, but with uid 0.
>>
> I think this has to be a typo, command substitution is not warranted
> $SHELL or ${SHELL} is what's meant, also I think, you just try '-l'
> w/ su , or "sue tack el". and not "Install, [and configure], and then
> man sudo "
> You're the only admin for this system? Sudo would have use your user
> login password to get root, not root's password.

Yes, just me, myself & I ....

>
> Also, I'd recommend against "su -m" "leaving environment unchanged."
> I'd say remember that exists, to rescue a broken .profile etc, but avoid
> habitual use, and just change the directory, after becoming root.
> You want your profile read, right? Not changes to PATH, etc done at
> command line?

Yes to both of the last questions. I went to 'su -' & everything mostly
works. I also recall from last year, messing around w/ NetBSD on my
RPi-B+ time server, that rxvt (what I usually use on this box, FreeBSD
9.3R-p13) has some issues when ssh-ing into NetBSD. When I switch to an
xterm, everything behaves much better, which I am now doing. Thanks :-).

--

William A. Mahaffey III

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war
ever devised by man."
-- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.