Not in sudoers list, su: Authentication Failed

[KiotieII]

Hello, I'm trying to install Ubuntu (9.04, I think) on a 2G Surf, as described here http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=467740#p467740 .

When I get to the part I need to enter "sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list", I get the message "user is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported." (My account name is user). So, when I try to login as root using su -, I enter the password I entered during the installation for root, and then it says "su: Authentication failed". I am desperate to get this installed, and I'm pretty much stuck right now, because I need su to add user to the sudoers list, and without sudo, I can't install anything.

Please explain everything, as I am very new to Linux.
Thanks,
KiotieII

[jacobs444]

I have had this problem before. you may have to use the live disk, boot all the way up then open applications/accesories/terminal type sudo su. Then type mkdir /media/disk1, then mount the disk you installed on to /media/disk1 (usuallyfor first hard disk with ext4 partition:
mount -t /dev/sda1 ext4 /media/disk1

then type: chroot /media/disk1
then passwd yourusername
and enter new password
you can also: passwd root
from here, once done reboot and enjoy.

[mechro]

I'll take a wild guess that having a username of "user" is a bad idea and causing conflicts.

[KiotieII]

I have had this problem before. you may have to use the live disk, boot all the way up then open applications/accesories/terminal type sudo su. Then type mkdir /media/disk1, then mount the disk you installed on to /media/disk1 (usuallyfor first hard disk with ext4 partition:
mount -t /dev/sda1 ext4 /media/disk1

then type: chroot /media/disk1
then passwd yourusername
and enter new password
you can also: passwd root
from here, once done reboot and enjoy.

Thanks, I'll try that and report back.

KiotieII

[KiotieII]

I have had this problem before. you may have to use the live disk, boot all the way up then open applications/accesories/terminal type sudo su. Then type mkdir /media/disk1, then mount the disk you installed on to /media/disk1 (usuallyfor first hard disk with ext4 partition:
mount -t /dev/sda1 ext4 /media/disk1

then type: chroot /media/disk1
then passwd yourusername
and enter new password
you can also: passwd root
from here, once done reboot and enjoy.

Ok, I booted into 9.04 via a CD and entered the following codes successfully:

sudo su
root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# mkdir /media/disk1


Then, I entered this code (the file system is ext3) :

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# Mount -t /dev/sda1 ext3 /media/disk1

And I got this error:
mount: unknown filesystem type '/dev/sda1'

I went ahead and tried chroot /media/disk1 and got the following error:

chroot: cannot run command '/bin/bash': no such file or directory

Should I reinstall (AGAIN :mad:) and choose a different name, or is this still fixable?

Thanks!
KiotieII

[KiotieII]

Ok, I booted into 9.04 via a CD and entered the following codes successfully:

sudo su
root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# mkdir /media/disk1


Then, I entered this code (the file system is ext3) :

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# Mount -t /dev/sda1 ext3 /media/disk1

And I got this error:
mount: unknown filesystem type '/dev/sda1'

I went ahead and tried chroot /media/disk1 and got the following error:

chroot: cannot run command '/bin/bash': no such file or directory

Should I reinstall (AGAIN :mad:) and choose a different name, or is this still fixable?

Thanks!
KiotieII
Ok, I can now at least access root. I did chroot /media/disk and changed the password. I will now look up how to add a user to the sudo file :P

Thanks for your help!!

KiotieII

[GGG121]

Hello KiotieII,

Check out the man page to visudo to go about editing the sudoers list.


man visudo

As root, run visudo and add your user name in the same way root is entered. I had to do this on my own little project running Intrepid, but I think it should still work on Jaunty.

Hope this helps...:)

[KiotieII]

Hello KiotieII,

Check out the man page to visudo to go about editing the sudoers list.


man visudoAs root, run visudo and add your user name in the same way root is entered. I had to do this on my own little project running Intrepid, but I think it should still work on Jaunty.

Hope this helps...:)

Thank you very much!