Installation guide

162 Chapter 17. Console Access

cp /etc/pam.d/halt /etc/pam.d/foo

Now, when you run /usr/bin/foo, it will call consolehelper, which will authenticate the

user with the help of /usr/sbin/userhelper. To authenticate the user, consolehelper will

ask for the user’s password if /etc/pam.d/foo is a copy of /etc/pam.d/halt (otherwise, it

will do precisely what is speciﬁed in /etc/pam.d/foo) and then run /usr/sbin/foo with

root permissions.

17.7. The floppy Group

If, for whatever reason, console access is not appropriate for you and you need to give non-

root users access to your system’s diskette drive, this can be done using the floppy group.

Simply add the user(s) to the floppy group using the tool of your choice. Here is an example

showing how gpasswd can be used to add user fred to the floppy group:

[root@bigdog root]# gpasswd -a fred floppy

Adding user fred to group floppy

[root@bigdog root]#

Now, user fred will now be able to access the system’s diskette drive from the console.