I really need help

[Sethdd]

whenever i try to do anything that requires a password this message pops up.
"The underlying authorization mechanism (sudo) does not allow you to run this program. Please contact the system administrator."

[jamieleshaw]

Try this 'adduser your_username admin' in the terminal.

[Sethdd]

It says
"Only root may add a user or group to the system."

[jamieleshaw]

Type 'su root' then type 'adduser your_username admin'

[Sethdd]

okay, now it says
"seth is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported."
?

[jamieleshaw]

crap sorry again ummm, I'll let someone else help you wth this one.

[HereInOz]

Try this:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/sudo

Hope this helps.

Without sudo priviledges, you may need to boot using a Live CD, then mount the hard disk and make any changes that way. It could be a fun time.

[prshah]

Boot into "Recovery Mode" (Select from the GRUB menu). If you get another menu, choose "Root terminal" (Or equivalent therof) to land up at a command prompt. Then give the adduser command as suggested earlier. No need to add "sudo". Then give the command
reboot boot normally, and you should have sudo access.

[jamieleshaw]

Boot into "Recovery Mode" (Select from the GRUB menu). If you get another menu, choose "Root terminal" (Or equivalent therof) to land up at a command prompt. Then give the adduser command as suggested earlier. No need to add "sudo". Then give the command
reboot boot normally, and you should have sudo access.
Why didn't I think of that?
:)