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HELP! Non-admin account difficulties.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Status:
Offline
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Mac OS X 10.2.6
I created a non-admin account, and am now using it as my primary account so as to improve the security of my Mac. I have encountered a couple problems I am hoping someone can solve.
Problem #1: Unable to 'sudo' with non-admin account.
In the Netinfo Manager, if I add my username to groups > wheel, I still cannot sudo! I confirmed that I was in the wheel group by using 'id' at the Terminal. Did Steve Jobs do something stupid and make it where you have to be in the admin group to be able to sudo?
Problem #2: Unable to copy an App to the Applications folder.
Why is the Applications folder off limit to non-admin accounts? I can understand the System folder being like that, but the Applications folder? How does a non-admin account get write access to the Applications folder without being in the admin group?
Caveat:
Please respond using brief, factual statements. I don't want to see this thread turn into a haven for pseudo-intellectuals, opining about the reasons behind Apple's use of Netinfo or something. Thanks.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
Status:
Offline
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You have to be in the admin group to be able to use sudo by default. You can edit /etc/sudoers to change this.
The applications folder is locked out for good reason. Only admins should have access to make changes to /System, /Library, and /Applications. Non-admin users can install their own apps into their home folder. They should not have the ability to make changes to the system that can affect other users. If you want a non-admin user to be able to modify /Applications then change the permissions of the folder.
If you start giving your non-admin account all of these admin abilities, then you are defeating the purpose of creating the non-admin account. You might as well just use an admin account.
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Vandelay Industries
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Retired.
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
Non-admin users can install their own apps into their home folder.
Not necessarily, they can only install those apps that do NOT require authentication, and in this day of age, not many of those exist (this is good IMHO)...
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Status:
Offline
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The reason you don't allow average (non-admin) users to install global applications is for security. If you allowed this, then users could easily replace real, known apps (TextEdit) with trojans that compromise the system when run by an admin user.
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Mac Pro 2x 2.66 GHz Dual core, Apple TV 160GB, two Windows XP PCs
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by gorickey:
Not necessarily, they can only install those apps that do NOT require authentication, and in this day of age, not many of those exist (this is good IMHO)...
Quite true. In my experience, it's about 50-50 whether it requires authentication or not. Technically, it should only require authentication if it's making changes to the system.
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Vandelay Industries
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