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Old 12-19-2011, 10:26 AM   #1
prashant.saraf
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Lost administrator rights


Hi,


Today some how I lost my admin right. now I can't mount any of the usb/attached drive. I can't unlock the user details.

Please help, I am using ubuntu 11.10

Thanks
Prashant Saraf
 
Old 12-19-2011, 12:30 PM   #2
widget
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Boot to recovery mode.

Get to the root prompt.

Reset your password.
Code:
passwd <user name>
 
Old 12-19-2011, 12:47 PM   #3
unSpawn
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Apart from the answer given and because of you saying "somehow": how did this happen? Did you change any file or directory ownership or access permissions? Or did you (re-)configure something you (apparently) shouldn't have? What do the logs say?
 
Old 12-19-2011, 10:16 PM   #4
prashant.saraf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by widget View Post
Boot to recovery mode.

Get to the root prompt.

Reset your password.
Code:
passwd <user name>
i rebooted to recovery mode and tried above command with root user but got below error

Code:
Authentication token manipulation error
 
Old 12-19-2011, 10:21 PM   #5
prashant.saraf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by unSpawn View Post
Apart from the answer given and because of you saying "somehow": how did this happen? Did you change any file or directory ownership or access permissions? Or did you (re-)configure something you (apparently) shouldn't have? What do the logs say?

This is what I did yesterday

1. I installed Oracle 11g Express Edition
2. I installed openbravo-3
3. I am unable to start oracle edition so I run following command

Code:
sudo usermod -a -G dba username
and rest i did not remember but i didn't use console

Also to check the logs and which log i should check??

Thanks
Prashant Saraf
 
Old 12-19-2011, 10:28 PM   #6
widget
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Quote:
Originally Posted by prashant.saraf View Post
i rebooted to recovery mode and tried above command with root user but got below error

Code:
Authentication token manipulation error
Strange.

You did use your user name in place of the "<user name>" part of that command I hope.
 
Old 12-20-2011, 10:16 AM   #7
prashant.saraf
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yes I have used the actual user name. Can anyone help me on this??
 
Old 12-20-2011, 12:04 PM   #8
widget
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You will have to give more information on how you installed these things and where you got them from.

Something has changed in you permissions, obviously, but some idea of how this happened has to be found before a solution can be found.
 
Old 12-20-2011, 05:18 PM   #9
unSpawn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by prashant.saraf View Post
rest i did not remember but i didn't use console
So what did you do? I agree you have to give more information what you did.


Quote:
Originally Posted by prashant.saraf View Post
Also to check the logs and which log i should check??
The usual: /var/log/* basically, anything that may hold a clue.
 
Old 12-20-2011, 09:22 PM   #10
prashant.saraf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by unSpawn View Post
So what did you do? I agree you have to give more information what you did.
I remember one more thing... I go into setting --> user account to my user I set as auto login enable so I don't need to put login details every details. That is it I did. I also did regular system upgrade.

With all these I found new issue.. Now I am unable to restart/shutdown the system, on click of shutdown it goes to login screen and nothing happens.

Thanks
Prashant
 
Old 12-20-2011, 10:01 PM   #11
widget
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Just to give my standard lecture, don't auto log in. There are some options in the "session" box on the login screen that come in mighty handy. Auto login is also not the best way to have a secure OS either.

That said, how did you install those 2 programs? This appears to be the important information.

Did you get them from the Ubuntu repo? Or somewhere else? If somewhere else, where?

What did you do to install them?

If this was done in your terminal there is a history kept of commands given there. I don't know what the default is but I have plenty of room and set the limit for saving all commands. The default is some number of lines limit.
 
Old 12-21-2011, 12:06 PM   #12
prashant.saraf
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I did install the Oracle using bin executable file.
and about openbravo-3 i install using the ubuntu repo(ppapenbravo-isv/ppa). I have installed both of then in earlier version of ubuntu and didn't face any issue.

I think whatever is happen is either because of
Code:
 sudo usermod -a -G dba username
or changing to auto login.
 
Old 12-21-2011, 02:29 PM   #13
widget
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While I am not a big fan of auto log in I can see no way that should effect your privileges.

I can see nothing wrong with your usermod command either. Have only used it once myself so I took a look at the man page to make sure that I remembered right. Could be I don't understand it quite right.

Have you tried using that command to add yourself to the admin group? This would have to be done from the root prompt probably.
 
Old 12-22-2011, 11:58 AM   #14
prashant.saraf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by widget View Post
While I am not a big fan of auto log in I can see no way that should effect your privileges.

I can see nothing wrong with your usermod command either. Have only used it once myself so I took a look at the man page to make sure that I remembered right. Could be I don't understand it quite right.

Have you tried using that command to add yourself to the admin group? This would have to be done from the root prompt probably.
Yes, I use above command to add me in dba group. And very strange thing with me now is the shutdown or restart button is not working... it only does log off
 
Old 01-22-2012, 06:17 PM   #15
SchneiderIS
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I am experiencing the EXACT same problem. I didn't do an Oracle install but rather ran the latest updates. I also had my user set to Auto login because the box is my MythBuntu backend and sometimes I need the wife to reboot it while I am away from the house. Earlier I had also tried out the boot with no password but then could not get it disabled. Now I have a box that won't let me change the password, won't automatically boot in, and is experiencing other issues. ARG!!!!
 
  


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