[arch-general] Initramfs fallback render

[Anatol Pomozov]

Hi

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 4:55 PM, Ismael Bouya
<ismael.bouya at normalesup.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have always learnt that it was good practice (to use sudo instead of root
> su and), when we use sudo, to completely disable root login (by disabling
> his password).

In fact disabling root password does not completely prevent a user
from logging as root. There are other ways to authenticate e.g. SSH
keys (it assumes sshd.config did not disable root login).

The "correct" way to disable root completely is to make it expired
"usermod --expiredate DATE_IN_PAST root". I tried it on my machine and
found that pacman is broken. I believe it uses "su" before running
install scripts.



>
> However when we need to boot into "fallback mode", initramfs asks for root
> password! Is there a standard/automated way to ask/permit another user via
> initramfs in Archlinux?
>
> If not, how do you deal with that usually?
>
>
> Thanks in advance for your response!
>
> Regards,
> --
> Ismael