permission denied and unable to do anything in terminal

[kewinh0727]

hey i got a really big problem! i have dualbooted windows 7 and ubuntu 12.04

2 partition for the windows 7 OS and 2 partitions for ubuntu where i have 4096MB for swap and 130GB for ubuntu..

its a bit laggy when im dragging windows around the desktop ... but that is ot my main problem right now..

the problem is that i cant do anything in the terminal... i can't open

/etc/apt/sources.list to edit so i can install spotify... it only says permission denied.

and when im trying to log in as root through

su

is says Authenicating Failure.

i have no idea why it is like that... when i used 10.04 i didnt have that problem at all so im wondering why now in 12.04 ? thnx.

[snowpine]

Welcome to the forums!

In Ubuntu we use 'sudo' (not 'su'), for example:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Be very careful editing this important system file! A significant % of support requests on these forums relate to mangled sources.list problems.

[kewinh0727]

Welcome to the forums!

In Ubuntu we use 'sudo' (not 'su'), for example:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Be very careful editing this important system file! A significant % of support requests on these forums relate to mangled sources.list problems.

i know that we use sudo

it was just an example... so why can't i log in to su in terminal ?

and thanx i finaly got into the ''list'' ..

[snowpine]

'su' is disabled in Ubuntu. We use 'sudo' instead. The comparable command to 'su' is:

sudo -i

More info here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

[kewinh0727]

hey im new to this forum and pretty new in ubuntu. i have used ubuntu 10.04 lts just a little bit.

well now i have a little problem... i feel lika i have more administrator acces if you can call it that, when im typing commands in the terminal i was able to do more things in 10.04 lts but now in 12.04.2 i can't to much at all i cant for example install spotify like the exact way i did in 10.04 i feel locked down or something or is it supposed to be like this ?

plz tell me if it has changed or anything and which codes i can type to like get ''permission acces'' because now all i get is permission denied and no file or directory and so on..

thnx !

[QIII]

Threads merged.

Please do not start new threads on the same topic. In this case, it would have been better to simply bump this thread by adding another post with a simple message like "bump".

However, don't bump more often than once in 24 hours.

Thanks.

[kewinh0727]

Threads merged.

Please do not start new threads on the same topic. In this case, it would have been better to simply bump this thread by adding another post with a simple message like "bump".

However, don't bump more often than once in 24 hours.

Thanks.

yeah i was looking for the first one but i couldnt find it :/ thnx ^^and sorry

[QIII]

No problem.

If you want to find your previous posts, use the "Search" button in the tool bar and select "Find All Your Posts."

Good luck with your issue!

[rnerwein]

i know that we use sudo

it was just an example... so why can't i log in to su in terminal ?

and thanx i finaly got into the ''list'' ..

hi
for using "su" in a terminal:
1. type sudo -i (gives you a root shell)
2. passwd root (give root a password)
3. now you can run su in a terminal
ciao

[ooleyguy]

You can temporarily become su by typing sudo su in the terminal. You will keep root access (so far as I can tell) as long as you keep that terminal open.

Not exactly sure you really need to do that. I've only been using linux and ubuntu for two weeks and typing the 4 letter phrase sudo has become second nature, just like slamming my hands on my keyboard every time windows did something stupid did. sudo doesn't ask for your PW every time. I guess it knows that you are the same user that was using sudo 5 seconds ago.