[Techtalk] Sound card gone missing - OSS/ALSA woes

Little Girl littlergirl at gmail.com
Sat Mar 17 19:30:25 UTC 2012


Hey there,

I'm trying out your quoting method, and did it on all the quotes just
to see how it comes across. If you hate it, let me know and I won't
do it again. (:

> > TraceyC wrote:
> > > As a sysadmin, I'd restrict
> > > him to a wheel account without the ability to break things that
> > > only root can break. A wheel account has the flexibility to add
> > > more ability to change things as he learns while keeping him to
> > > the agreement to not futz with things he shouldn't.

> Little Girl writes:
> > A wheel account sounds good, and then letting him out of it from
> > time to time with the full awareness that he might end the world
> > would be good, too.

Akkana Peck wrote:
> What do you two mean by "wheel account"? I've seen "wheel" used for
> a group that has sysadmin/sudo privileges -- and I just googled it
> and Wikipedia seems to use it that way too. But you seem to mean an
> account that *doesn't* have sudo privileges.

I didn't Google it. I assumed a wheel account was a kiosk account,
which I understand to be an account with limited privileges. After
Googling it, too, it looks like you're right, in which case Gwen's
husband would get a giant wrecking ball to play with. (:

Akkana Peck wrote:
> I'm curious what sort of account would let him learn how to manage
> a system without letting him break anything.

Probably none, other than a computer for him to do with as he pleases
with a live CD handy for reinstalling the operating system if
necessary. Any limits would prevent him from trying out new stuff,
but I suppose the limits could be gradually eased, giving him more
and more power until one day he rules the world. (:

The advantage of offering a limited account, though, would be to
protect any valued data during times when supervision wasn't possible
on a machine others use.

> Little Girl wrote:
> > When I got my first computer a relative of mine said that I
> > shouldn't be fearful of it, but just go ahead and mess around
> > with it. He told me that everybody messes up their computers
> > eventually, that he fully

Akkana Peck wrote:
> Definitely. On the other hand, that works a lot better on a computer
> owned by just one person than on a shared computer. It's a bummer
> when I mess my machine up because I did something dumb, but it
> would be a much bigger bummer if I messed up a shared machine just
> before my husband needed to use it for something, or vice versa.

Agreed. I'd also recommend thorough, rigorous backups on a shared
machine to protect the data from anything either user may
accidentally do. After all, no matter how polished we think we are,
even us seasoned veterans can still make a mess of things. (:

Akkana Peck wrote:
> If at all possible, in this age of cheap computers I'd say get the
> Linux learner a cheap machine of his own to play with -- even if
> it's a cheap used laptop from ebay. Or if you really have to share
> a machine, make another root partition, or use virtualization, and
> install a separate Linux there for playing around without risking
> the working system.

I'll add a live CD to that list, although there are probably limits
to what one can do on a live CD, and the live CD forgets any
changes, so the next time you boot with it, you have to start all
over again.

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.


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