[SOLVED] how to add user to sudo group

automaticjerk · 06-10-2019, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Brillo

Can somebody explain why "visudo" seems to be read-only?

I know this has been marked solved, but there is one more thing you should probably do before walking away from visudo:

Run vimtutor. Vi is available in one form or another in practically every *nix system. Most other editors are not. There's nothing wrong with preferring nano or emacs or what-have-you, but knowing how to use vi is an incredibly helpful skill. Sure, it's quite possibly the most user-hostile text editor in common use today. But as soon as you get the basics figured out, you'll be flying through config files like you wouldn't believe. And, as hazel has said, it is highly recommended that you use visudo to edit your sudoers file. Aside from that, it's one of the most powerful tools you can have in your arsenal. Plus, you get bragging rights when you show it off to your windows using friends that still use notepad like every other backwards mud-eating savage.

Just do

Code:

vimtutor

in a terminal, play with it for about 20 - 30 minutes, and be prepared to own your computer.

chris.willing · 06-10-2019, 03:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Brillo

Thanks, all.
Finally managed to get at the "sudoers" file, and modified it like chris.willing suggested.
Now I'm ok.

Good that you made it work. However, although I mentioned the possibility of directly modifying the sudoers file, I wasn't really advocating it - others have already cautioned against it.

Note that the correct the permission for /etc/sudoers is read only for the root user & group. No one else should have any access to it. I guess this also encourages using the visudo utility to modify it. As for visudo itself being read only, this doesn't make sense. If you had trouble modifying anything while using it, it was probably because you're not familiar with how the default editor, vi (or vim), works. In that case, you can make visudo use a different editor such as nano by running (as root):

Code:

VISUAL=nano visudo

Give that a try, even if you have already edited the sudoers file the way you want it, just so that we others can know if that was the cause of your "readonly visudo" problem.

Also, presuming you have changed the permissions to enable editing it directly, don't forget to restore the correct permissions for it. Run (as root):

Code:

chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers

w1k0 · 06-14-2019, 02:44 PM

This is my /etc/sudoers file:

Code:

Defaults    timestamp_timeout = 0

User_Alias  FULL    = john
User_Alias  PART    = mary

Cmnd_Alias  CDWR    = /usr/bin/mkisofs, /usr/bin/cdrecord, \
                      /usr/bin/cdda2wav, /usr/bin/cdrdao, \
                      /usr/bin/dvd+rw-format
Cmnd_Alias  MOUNT   = /bin/mount, /bin/umount
Cmnd_Alias  KILL    = /bin/kill, /bin/killall

Cmnd_Alias  HALT    = /sbin/reboot, /sbin/halt, /usr/bin/suspend
Cmnd_Alias  PRINT   = /usr/bin/lpr, /usr/bin/lpq, /usr/bin/lprm
Cmnd_Alias  CONSOLE = /usr/bin/setfont, /usr/bin/loadkeys

Cmnd_Alias  NET     = /usr/local/bin/network, /usr/local/bin/offline, \
                      /usr/local/bin/varlog

root ALL =  (ALL) ALL

FULL ALL =  NOPASSWD: CDWR, MOUNT, KILL, \
                      HALT, PRINT, CONSOLE, \
                      NET

PART ALL =  NOPASSWD: CDWR, MOUNT, KILL, \
                      HALT, PRINT, CONSOLE, \
            PASSWD:   NET

I believe the above file is self-explanatory. There are two users (john and mary) and two access policies (FULL and PART). Some programs such as /usr/local/bin/network, /usr/local/bin/offline, and /usr/local/bin/varlog are absent in your system.

andrew.46 · 06-16-2019, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Brillo

Alien Bob: I hear you - but having a bit of trouble with NOT thinking Ubuntu/Mint etc. Thanks for your comment.

I originally came from Ubuntu myself so I know where you are coming from

. Just to add a slightly differing view: I have never set sudo up on any of my Slackware installations and when I need elevated privileges I use either 'su' or 'su -' from a Terminal where I am user. Just another way of doing things and I am certainly not arguing with those who have given you sound advice concerning sudo. Ubuntu I know has strong feelings on the subject...

w1k0 · 06-17-2019, 05:42 AM

This is part of my ~/.bashrc file:

Code:

export PS1="\u@\h:\w\$ "

alias ls='ls --color=auto -b -T 0'

alias c='perl -e '\''$_="@ARGV";s/\^/**/g;y/x/*/;print eval $_, "\n"'\'''

alias mount="sudo /bin/mount"
alias umount="sudo /bin/umount"

alias kill="sudo /bin/kill"
alias killall="sudo /bin/killall"

alias reboot="sudo /sbin/reboot"
alias halt="sudo /sbin/halt"
alias suspend="sudo /usr/bin/suspend"

It works with /etc/sudoers file from post #18.

So both john and mary may use commands such as:

mount /mnt/sdb1
kill -9 21040
reboot
etc.

without preceding them with “sudo” command.