Hello All,

I've read a few posts on the internet that have been solved but it hasn't seemed to solve my issue =/

When I enter in sudo commands in the terminal the next line asks for a password. I type it in (although it does't show me it's typing anything) and hit enter.
It just keeps telling it can't authenticate (su: authentication failure). I only have one password, so I'm not sure why it won't work? I've tried just hitting enter too without typing my password and that doen't work either.
I want to set up open vpn but I need to use the terminal in order to do so.
Would also like to change my username as well.

Then type in the password without sudo to see if it is correct.

In addition,

What distribution/version are you running?

Passwords are not echoed and since linux is case sensitive make sure caps lock is not on if using capital letters in your password.

I tried the above suggestions prior to posting but they didn't work.

I think I'm a temporary user, not an admin.
I see articles saying to log in as root to make one of the accounts admin.
Trying to figure out how to do that properly so I don't ruin anything.

I'm running 18.3 Sylvia

edit:

I did ctrl + alt + F1 and I can log in just fine so I know my password is correct. This is what's leading me to believe I don't have admin rights.

linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu which disables root by default. The username you created during the installation process is the "administrator" and has sudo privileges to run commands as root. As an example you can try running the following command. This will only output the disk partition information and will not change any settings. You should be prompted for a password.

sudo parted -l

Might you be typing just the two letters: su
And not actually 4letter sudo?
I noticed your mention of (su: auth err)
Have a look here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/4465...tication-error
su and sudo are different 'things'!!'
(There's long articles about them, if you want) Let us know.

Might you be typing just the two letters: su
And not actually 4letter sudo?
I noticed your mention of (su: auth err)
Have a look here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/4465...tication-error
su and sudo are different 'things'!!!
(There's long articles about them, if you want) Let us know.

could it be you got a machine with mint already pre-installed?
i recently did the so-called OEM install for someone else, but haven't recieved any feedback yet.
it is supposed to take you through some guided menu so you can set up your own username & password etc.

yeah, don't.
it sounds wrong.
or show us the exact article.

Yeah I don’t want to go through root. I’m thinking it’s an install error on my part, so I’m going to re-install. Linux was not pre loaded.

I did type sudo but the su authentication came back.

Link that is closest to my issue is
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1938482

Will try the install in a few hours and will post update and put thread as solved if it works.
Crossing my fingers

Problem solved =]

It was an improper install.
I was not able to set up my own account when I installed the first time for some reason, which is why I wasn't an admin.

I just re-installed and was able to create an account.
I did a basic sudo command and was able to enter my password and proceed.

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