How do I add myself to the sudoers list?
 

Tired of getting told that I'm not in the sudoers file. How do I add myself to it, and is there any reason that I wouldn't want to?

Any reason you can't use su?.
There's nothing wrong with using sudo,personally I just don't like Ubuntu's interpretation of sudo use.

not really, I'm just sick of being told I'm not in the sudoers list.

sudo - Debian Wiki
http://wiki.debian.org/sudo

SUDO Configuration in Debian
http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/sudo.htm

Debian User Forums • View topic - Proper way to open apps as root in X
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=53366

can you edit /etc/sudoers and and yourself e.g through group wheel?.Thats what I do on slackware,don't know if its different on your system.

To edit the sudoers file you should use the command "visudo". You should never edit that file by hand.

visudo or add self to sudo group
 

Switch over to root and type visudo. The benefit of using visudo is that it will check syntax and whatever else and warn you of any problems you may have introduced into the sudoers file.

visudo shows me that there is a group I could place myself into called 'sudo'. So instead of fooling around in the sudoers file add yourself to the 'sudo' group if you like ... that's what I've done.

To add your normal user (tony) to this group:

The 'tony' user will have to provide his/her password to issue system commands using sudo.