What are the repercussions of changing ‘Demo’ username in a frugal install

[Member anilkagi]

Hello there,

I understand this is a stupid question, but my ignorance …

I have done a frugal-install.

I have created a unprivileged user account other than the default ‘Demo’ with high privileges.

I would be using the unprivileged user account for work and the ‘Demo’ account for making changes to the system. I want to keep this setup and it is working fine.

However, I would like to change the username and password of this privileged ‘Demo’ account.

Since this is a frugal install, almost like a live-USB, which needs root privileges for ‘Demo’ in order to do installations, I wonder, if changing the default username and password, could corrupt the system or create security holes and the like?

Please kindly forgive my ignorance and shed light on this.

Thanks & Regards

[Member Xecure]

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The only important account is the root account. You can create a new account and delete demo if you don’t want to use it anymore, you can change demo’s password, or if demo has important info and you dislike that username, you can change the name and password of the account. All of this can be done on the antiX User manager (Control centre > Maintenance > User Manager).
When you opened it to create the unprivileged account you should have also seen these options there.

anilkagi wrote:

Since this is a frugal install, almost like a live-USB, which needs root privileges for ‘Demo’ in order to do installations, I wonder, if changing the default username and password, could corrupt the system or create security holes and the like?

If that happened, the moment you created and logged into a new account everything would have gone caput and you wouldn’t be able to even access frugal. Deleting demo won’t matter.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by Xecure.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by Brian Masinick. Reason: typo

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member anilkagi]

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Thank you Xecure for the input,

I had seen those options on the antiX User manager, but was hesitant to do that.

Xecure wrote:

The only important account is the root account

Which is the account that installs the system? Root or Demo?

Is the Demo account just a dummy account necessary to interact with the user who wants to use the OS that is beneath and the root account is the one that carries out the wishes (installation and other tasks) of the user.

Consequently another question comes to my mind. Just curious.

When an user, privileged or unprivileged, gives a command through the cli or gui, is it the root that carries out that command? Or is it the kernel at work? Or is it the terminal? Who is in charge through out, actually carrying out the commands given by all the users, the applications etc?

There must be a hierarchy of sorts by which the user’s commands percolate down to the bottom to get things done, like;

User > Application/GUI/CLI > Kernel > HW (processor, device etc)

IMO, I would see the OS as a set of basic applications that takes the commands from the user and passes on to the kernel, which gets things done from the hardware and the results return back to the user by the same path. Of course there is another layer of applications installed on top of these set of basic applications or the OS, on demand by the user like the LO, media player, GIMP etc.

So in order to manage this process of sending commands and delivering results through all the necessary paths/channels there must be a central entity which is in touch with everything from the User to OS/Application to Kernel to HW. Which is that central entity? Or am I perceiving all this wrong?

Further in context of this thread here, that central entity is the Root or Demo?

I hope, what I am trying to express here, hasn’t got convoluted.

I was thinking that the Demo account is the one with all the root privileges and it is the one that installs OS. Additionally I thought, the entire OS is built with the Demo account and has the owner privileges over the OS, which is also the root. So when I change the Demo username to something else, that could mess with owner privileges of some vital sections of the OS. Of course the changed username would take effect through out the OS, but I was wary that it could mess up things.

My other apprehensions were that there is a root account, with the username ‘root’ and password ‘root’ which is the account with the highest privileges. I came to know this, when I was reading @Brian Masinick’s blog on core install. Before that, whenever during a regular install, I used to come across the option to change the root password, I used to do it blindly, without knowing what it meant. So now, in a regular install there is the option to change the root password, but not the root username. And in the frugal install I didn’t come across any such option. So I felt Demo is the root. (After reading your post, it came to my mind and I just checked the control center > User manager. There is the option to change the root password.) I have made the frugal install, customized it and got everything ready but haven’t changed the root password for lack of grips with this matter. 🙁 I had just forgotten what I had learnt from Brian’s blog.

So it comes down to this; the root account with the username ‘root’ and password ‘root’ is the main thing. I can change the root password but cannot change the ‘root’ username. The OS is built under the rwx privileges of the ‘root’ username, whose password only I can change. The Demo account is just a dummy account to interact with the user. Am I right in thinking so?

Please throw some more light upon this.

Xecure wrote:

If that happened, the moment you created and loged into a new account everything would have gone caput and you wouldn’t be able to even access frugal.

I was thinking of less severe problems like, the OS becoming unstable or creating some security holes.

Thank you

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by anilkagi.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Xecure wrote:

The only important account is the root account. You can create a new account and delete demo if you don’t want to use it anymore, you can change demo’s password, or if demo has important info and you dislike that username, you can change the name and password of the account. All of this can be done on the antiX User manager (Control centre > Maintenance > User Manager).
When you opened it to create the unprivileged account you should have also seen these options there.

anilkagi wrote:

Since this is a frugal install, almost like a live-USB, which needs root privileges for ‘Demo’ in order to do installations, I wonder, if changing the default username and password, could corrupt the system or create security holes and the like?

If that happened, the moment you created and logged into a new account everything would have gone caput and you wouldn’t be able to even access frugal. Deleting demo won’t matter.

I agree 100%. If I am just using a temporary live instance of antiX, I usually leave the settings alone, but if I intend to remaster, save, use either some form of persistence or create a custom image, then I set the root password and either change the demo password, or if I intend to make a permanent persistent state or a complete remaster, I change the demo account to a masinick account, and change directory name, password, and any other account-specific details, and copy my own alias, shell, and other configuration files into my permanent setup.

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Brian Masinick

[Member anilkagi]

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Thanks Masinick, for giving a model.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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anilkagi wrote:

Thanks Masinick, for giving a model.

You’re welcome!
Best wishes always.

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Brian Masinick

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