I just got back from the university where I encountered a Debian/Ubuntu horror story. I went to local lab on campus at my University to print out some class material, since its near finals finding a computer can be difficult, so I found one that looked like it hadn't been used for a while. I booted up and to my surprise it was loaded with Ubuntu, weird as this University is mostly Windows only. So I looked at the boot screen, and did not see a Windows options, seems that the person just wiped the mbr and used grub instead.
So apparently the guy was not the smartest, he left a failsafe boot in the grub menu. So I booted into single user mode added myself as a new user and then booted into Ubuntu. After looking at the file tree it seems that this guy called jon, as he labeled everything like jon-desktop, and in etc/hosts called the machine jon. His home folder which was only protected by user permission was filled with porn, and movie downloads. Some of these were recent, like the computer was used not to long ago. He was trying to be slick, and changed the default root password, so if I tried to sudo rm -rf his home folder I did not have permission. The reason I was upset at this is this computer could be used by students, and some wiseguy decides he wants a personal file server, which would deny people like me from reaching my objective, ie printing out stuff for class. So I booted back into single user mode, and changed the root password, and then deleted his home folder, and then changed his /etc/hosts file. I also for good measure edited /boot/grub/menu.lst commented out the failsafe option. So now when it boots you can only see one entry. I also deleted him as a user for good measure. Yeah I know a little harsh but the people in charge of the lab usually reinstall during the break, I doubt they will get right on it. If he wanted to be real slick he should of kept windows, and installed Ubuntu on a different partition. Then he should have made windows the default boot OS in grub, and no one would of noticed. I hope he carries around a live Cd, or rescue CD as he will need one. I just wonder how many bots my University has on campus, the thought is scary. I know I will probably be flamed for this post, as I could be irresponsible for not directly telling a lab assistant. Which would probably put a out of use note on it and wait until the break anyway. I thought I would try to curb deviant behavior a little bit. Maybe this jon will learn his lesson, not use the University computers for his file servers. Gnu_Raiz -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
