ct won't run (was: SCO 'su' replacement)

[Marc Unangst]

I wrote:
>I've given up on the SCO su(1).  I don't think SCO is ever going to be
>able to make SCO Unix act like "real Unix" -- i.e., you type "su", and
>after you enter the correct password, you ARE root.  The only thing to
>identify you as your previous user is your utmp record.

Well, I've just finished playing around with the SCO ODT
configuration, and I think I've got things fixed.

The trick is that all users must have the "su" authorization, or else
the old su restrictions apply.  The cover letter for unx257 and the
documentation for ODT don't mention this, of course.  A blanket
solution is to remember any changes you made to
/etc/auth/system/default, copy .../default.unix to .../default, and
then re-make the changes.  default.unix is a default file with more
liberal defaults; more like "real Unix" than "C2 Unix".  At this
point, I can now log in as "mju" and su to root with no problems.

I think I've discovered what I don't like about SCO.  With SCO Unix,
you can usually get the system to do what you want it to if you bang
on it long enough and experiment enough.  The basic problem is that
there are a lot of things that aren't documented extensively enough,
or documented at all.  I don't like to think about what would happen
if I didn't have as much time as I do to putter around with SCO Unix
-- I'd really be in trouble if I had clients depending on some of the
more esoteric features of Unix that SCO got "almost right".

I don't know about other people, but I'd be willing to pay $300-$400
extra (or maybe even more) for ODT/Unix documentation that includes
things like printed man pages; original source docs for software that
started out someplace else, like MMDF or X; and extensive
documentation on how to deal with the SecureWare stuff.  This "play
around with it for a few days and muddle through" business is getting
old.

--
Marc Unangst               |
mju at mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us  | "Bus error: passengers dumped"
...!hela!mudos!mju         |