sudo

Valkyrie_of_valhalla · 03-11-2007, 01:51 AM

su works fine. sudo simply rejects my password 3 times on Slackware.

While googleing, I have found this on a faq:

Quote:

Q) When sudo asks me for my password it never accepts what I enter even
though I know I entered my password correctly.
A) If your system uses shadow passwords, it is possible that sudo
didn't detect this. Take a look at the generated config.h file
and verify that the C function used for shadow password lookups
was detected. For instance, for SVR4-style shadow passwords,
HAVE_GETSPNAM should be defined (you can search for the string
"shadow passwords" in config.h with your editor). Note that
there is no define for 4.4BSD-based shadow passwords since that
just uses the standard getpw* routines.

Don't all Linux distributions use shadow passwords?
config.h, from what I know, is a C/C++ library file, which I should have only when I compile it. As sudo was installed by default, I don't have a config.h...
Also, how can I find out what algorythm Slack uses to encript passwords in shadow?

And, the most important question, any idea what I could do to get sudo to work?

Thanks for reading. Any info/idea is welcomed.

Jaqui · 03-11-2007, 03:22 AM

instead of using the root user password, try your normal user password.
sudo is super user do, means the user is a member of the sudoers group, and their password will allow root tasks.

you only need to enter root password if you are using switch user [ su ] to become root.

Valkyrie_of_valhalla · 03-11-2007, 03:45 AM

Hmm, how come I haven't thought of that?

Thanks
I entered my password and it told me the user wasn't in the sudoers list, but I edited /etc/sudoers and now it works fine

ahh · 03-11-2007, 01:01 PM

I'm pleased that you got your sudo working, but, at the risk of sounding condescending, I would like to clear up a misunderstanding about the program.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaqui

instead of using the root user password, try your normal user password.
sudo is super user do, means the user is a member of the sudoers group, and their password will allow root tasks.

you only need to enter root password if you are using switch user [ su ] to become root.

This is not strictly true, although it can be.

Sudo is very configurable and it can require a root password, a users password or no password depending on how the sudoers file is configured. It can also be used to run commands as any other user, not just as root (so maybe "switch user do" would be more appropriate?).

You also don't need to be a member of any particular group to use sudo, although that may be the way it's set up in your distribution. You can specify what any particular user or group is allowed to do in the sudoers file.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out what a versatile program sudo is, and now that I have, I'll go.