The line will look like:
Forrest

there is no line like that. or even close that i can see. all lines have ## in front of them like comments. how many lines should I see of actual commands?

My sudoers file has 95 lines (it is the default one with my user added). If you don't see the line above, just add one for your user account:

HTH

Forrest

i almost have it. i can add the line you said but can't for the life of me see how to save it.

anyone that can help I would greatly appriciate it.

sorry about the spelling

Under "File" in the drop down menus, there should be a "Save" option. Did it open gedit to edit with, or is it using vi?

Forrest

I opened it the way you suggested EDITOR= gedit the the rest.under file there is just some stuff about profiles but nothing about saving. what I do wrong?

I'm not sure what you are doing wrong. The editor you are describing doesn't sound anything like gedit. Lets try walking you through what you need to do in vi.

Log in and su to root as you did before. Then run:
After you get into vi you should see the contents of your sudoers file. Type the following exactly:
That "should" bring you to the root entry (I know you said you didn't have one, but this will make sure).

If your cursor is now on the root entry line type the following (replace YOURUSERNAME with your user name):
If your cursor is NOT on the root entry line type the following (yes, replace YOURUSERNAME with your user name):
HTH

Forrest

ok. I have found the "root" line (didn't realize you have to use the down arrows to move through the file). But even in this editor I get the same options when I choose "file". save not being one of them.how do I save the changes?

I also get a warning when I open the file to edit that the last sesion crashed and there may be someone else working on it or there maybe a duplicate file. probably from my abrubt exiting without saving. posibly unrelated I noticed a failure when I boot fedora" mounting fuse control file system failed" . don't know how important that is yet. first would like to straighten out monitor before I have a seizure.

The ":wq[Enter]" in the above should write and quit the file.

The above explaned:

"/^root[Enter]" (I know I forgot the "[Enter]" in the above, but I take it you figured that out) searches the file for the word root appearing at the beginning (signified by the "^") of a line.

"yy" yanks one line into the buffer.
"p" puts the item in the buffer below the current line.
"cw" changes the line from the current cursor position to the end of the current word.
"YOURUSERNAME" is what it changes it to and "[Esc]" ends the change input.
":wq[Enter]" writes the file out and quits (I use wq out of habit, you can also do the same thing with ":x")

HTH

Forrest

forrestt, just wanted to let you know it worked and solved the monitor problem. I really appriciate your help. still have two failures on start up , but I'll sort that out in time. I have much to learn. Thanks!!

Glad I could help. Post the other problems, and I'm sure you'll get them resolved.

Forrest