3mo ago

Can I remove sudo from Arch?

Ever since I found out about run0 I've been using that. I don't like having redundant software installed. Is it possible to safely remove sudo from an Arch Linux system? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

15 comments

In principle, yes, although the optional base-devel group depends on sudo, as do hundreds of AUR packages, and yet other projects you install tend to just assume you have a sudo binary around. Removing sudo will not break your system, but lead to well-deserved anger towards people not declaring their dependencies. :)
If you're ready to deal with the occasional application or script croaking, and subsequently fixing it, you should be fine removing sudo. I would personally consider building a dummy package replacing sudo, including a simple run0 wrapper at /usr/bin/sudo, to have a clean and transparent replacement.
- Any AUR package implicitly requires base-devel, so there's no requirement to list sudo explicitly.
I'm on Artix and I have removed sudo after installing doas. I do have a symlink sudo -> /usr/bin/doas in /usr/bin. Have had this configuration for about a year, nothing broke.
- I'm a systemD fan myself but I think it's cool that people still use other innit systems. Is there any issues with gaming on Artix? I used it once but didn't really try gaming. I really liked using Void Linux on an old netbook.
  
  I started out on Void, then to Arch and finally to Artix. The Artix experience really feels like a mix of Arch and Void to me. As for gaming, I'm really not a big gamer at all, not having played for years. I do remember playing Minecraft without issues as well as a few Steam games such as CSGO. So it's fine as far as I can tell.
Since it doesn't come installed by default on a fresh system, my guess would be that you won't break anything fundamental, but this is pure speculation.
- My thoughts exactly. My bare bones installation didn’t come with one. I had to specifically install it myself.
why exactly do you prefer run0?
with sudo I can allow certain actions I do myself (e. g. system upgrade or change timezone) to proceed without a password, but require a password for everything else. this is important because some scripts elevate privileges via sudo. if I allowed all sudo without password I might be ruined byone badly written script...
- Honestly I like that it's part of SystemD. I need SystemD for Arch but I don't need sudo. Also, the sudo logo is scary as fuck.
  
  OH GOD THAT SMILE WILL HAUNT MY NIGHTMARES 😱 😱 😱
I think you would need to blacklist it in pacman... however that is done. Otherwise it might just reinstall. It will probably break some script checks in random places, but it is not really a big hassle there. I get the same kinds of random errors with toolbox and distrobox containers that are often missing packages.
Some lower quality script (like I write) might do a check for sudo without error handling, but most will just test on uname or environment variables as far as I'm aware.
Why do you like this run0 more?
This discussion may be helpful to you: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=296931
I think it depends on the distro, some have it as a dependency of their whatever, but should not be a problem on minimal install distro's or pure Arch itself.
You can also just use the root user and not bother with any of the sudo nonsense.
- 😏

15 comments