Logging as root / sudoer problem

AceCraft · 07-12-2009, 09:15 AM

Hi!

It has been a week since I've installed Fedora v.11 on my laptop and from the very beginning I couldn't log as a root (when I try to log in as root it prints: cannot identify user), execute 'sudo su' in terminal (couldn't figure why). Just recently I've discovered that the problem is with my /etc/sudoers file as there isn't any entry for normal users. Unfortunately I've absolutely no idea how I can change this file...
(it belongs to root, is -r-r--- and as I said - I cannot log in as root!)

Can anyone help me?

malekmustaq · 07-12-2009, 09:49 AM

AceCraft:

Is root user enabled in your system? there are some distros that defaults to no root.

Usually to create a sudo user you only need to use the user applet in the menu>admin>users. There create a new group named after your user name. Group=Username. Then make your username a member to that group. that's it. your should be able to sudo su and acquire root power.

goodluck.

AceCraft · 07-12-2009, 10:16 AM

I actually have a group named after my user account:
"id"

Code:

uid=500(michal) gid=500(michal) grupy=0(root),4(adm),5(tty),500(michal) kontekst=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023

I've even added myself to 'root' and 'adm' in order to be in sudoers but it didn't help.
And how to enable root in system? There is 'root' user and 'root' group but I cannot log in.

karamarisan · 07-12-2009, 10:23 AM

If you're able to add yourself to new groups, I am inferring that you can still sudo - have you tried `sudo passwd root`? Also, FYI, you never modify /etc/sudoers directly. There is a command `visudo` that opens an editor on it and then applies the changes, as otherwise they wouldn't be reflected immediately. Try sudoing that if you need to change sudo settings for this.

raj77_in · 07-12-2009, 10:39 AM

From the output it looks like you have SELinux enabled, just that the SELinux policy is not blocking you.

You can enable sudo in the sudoers file with the following(if you want without password), is not commented:
%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
and then add your user to the wheel group.

If you desperately want root you can jump to init 1.

AceCraft · 07-12-2009, 01:55 PM

Yes, but I can't use visudo...

Code:

[michal@michal ~]$ sudo su
[sudo] password for michal: 
michal is not in the sudoers file.  This incident will be reported.
[michal@michal ~]$ visudo
visudo: /etc/sudoers: Permission denied
visudo: /etc/sudoers: Permission denied

neither can I login as root (how to enable it? Couldn't find this option in system->admin->users)

scottro11 · 07-12-2009, 02:08 PM

Fedora disables root by default. However, only from GDM.

Log in as normal user.

You should be able to do an su to root in any terminal.

It's not Ubuntu, and you don't have a sudo user enabled by default. I have a brief page on this as the question frequently arises on Fedora forums.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~computer...su/rhsudo.html

There are various other workarounds for the root login issues, mostly covered in the Fedora 11 release notes.

AceCraft · 07-12-2009, 02:15 PM

Thank you very much! now I know how to fix this

scottro11 · 07-12-2009, 02:18 PM

My pleasure. Believe me, it's a VERY frequent question on Fedora forums.

karamarisan · 07-12-2009, 03:28 PM

OP, does that mean you were able to su to root? I thought you couldn't log in as him (/it)?

AceCraft · 07-13-2009, 08:43 AM

Actually I haven't tried to 'su root' before so yes - I was able to, sorry for misunderstanding :P