newbie not in sudoers page

adewitt · 02-12-2009, 12:37 PM

Hi there,

I am a new Linux user and am having difficulty installing software. I am running FC10 and when I try to install synergy cam using the shell script they provide I encounter an error that says I am not in the sudoers file and do not have permission to access it. I tried going to the man sudoers page to learn more about this and add myself to the page and I am told I do not have administration access. How can I gain access and install my software? Thanks for any advice.

schneidz · 02-12-2009, 12:58 PM

you should do:

Code:

su - root
(enter root passwd)
visudo

look for a line like:
## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
and add

Code:

<username> ALL=(ALL) ALL  ## whatever your username is

_______________

it's probably better to add the user to group wheel and uncomment the appropriate line in visudo.

servat78 · 02-12-2009, 06:15 PM

You need root permissions to install software for system-wide use. The sudoers thing is only a means to allow some amount of permissions for certain users or applications. In your case it's probably the best to login as root and install it from there.

Debian

schneidz · 02-13-2009, 08:05 AM

^ bad advice.

sudo is created so its not necessary to log in as root everytime you need to do something administrative. if you get into the habit of logging in as root all the time you will wake up at 4:00 in the morning one day and accidentally do something stupid like 'rm -rf /' .

john83reuben · 02-13-2009, 08:09 AM

yea, only the root has the permission to create sudo users. for example, the root can give a user certain privileges to do root's job, like starting the apache etc.

john83reuben · 02-13-2009, 08:13 AM

## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
and add

Code:

<username> ALL=(ALL) ALL  ## whatever your username is

_______________

U dont have to use all, this means u have the same capability as a root, and defeat the purpose of sudo user.

You can specify certain privileges for a particular user.

schneidz · 02-13-2009, 08:24 AM

^ do you think adding the user to group wheel is a better approach ?

john83reuben · 02-13-2009, 09:15 AM

sudo is better, because it gives u an audit trail which records about what has been changed, by whom and when. By using wheel group to allow su , it doesnt give an audit trail. So, for security purposes, sudo is better.

palisetty_suman · 02-13-2009, 09:54 PM

hi. what scheider told is absolutely perfect. say what he did.

JulianTosh · 02-13-2009, 10:38 PM

I'd like to add to what schneidz is hinting at and clarify just what sudo is meant for...

Sudo is meant to allow non-root users to run specific commands as root. Allowing any group/user to run any command as root is pure evil and perpetrators should burn in hell. If you need full root access for any command, then you should 'su -'.

'sudo bash' or any other such nonsense is extremely bad form and can lead to severe security problems down the road.

Also, to safely edit the sudoers file, use visudo as it will warn you of any syntactical errors before writing the changes.

adewitt · 02-16-2009, 09:00 AM

Thanks to all for the help. Im shure that I will have more questions in the up coming weeks. Again thanks to all for the help.