madness@Mad:~$ sudo passwd root
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 0 <<<
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 1 <<<
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 2 <<<
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 3 <<<
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 4 <<<
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 5 <<<
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 6 <<<
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 7 <<<
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 8 <<<
>>> sudoers file: syntax error, line 9 <<<
sudo: parse error in /etc/sudoers near line 0


Ok, I have been away from Linux for awhile, and trying to get back into the swing of things with my now old pc to run a network file server / all around use pc while my network pcs can share mp3s and what not across the network.

So to start things off I notice that Ubuntu has no root password to start off with, so with this command I was given to set up a sudo to start install patches to get mp3s to play to give me a place to start before I start into Samba, I get this error posted above?!?!?!

Thanks for the help, and I hope you all welcome me back, my previous screen name on here I have forgotten and the old email account is not longer active, so I changed things up. Thanks.

Sounds as if something's wrong with your /etc/sudoers file. This may help:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/sudo

Also you don't need to enable a root password to have a root shell, sudo -i gives you a full root shell.
Having said that, there are errors in your sudoers file for sure

Ok, so here is my error.


Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 166
Major opcode: 144
Minor opcode: 3
Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device

That when I boot up in recovery mode and do nano /etc/sudoers



So now what?

It would help if you post the /etc/sudoers file
and those "errors" are totally normal, it's because there is a section for "wacom" in your xorg.conf file (used to configure the X server (graphics))
you can safely ignore them

Oh, and wacom is a driver for tablet devices, in case you were wondering

GNU nano 1.3.12 File: /etc/sudoers

X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 166
Major opcode: 144
Minor opcode: 3
Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device
X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 166
Major opcode: 144
Minor opcode: 3
Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device
# /etc/sudoers
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# Defaults

Defaults !lecture,tty_tickets,!fqdn

# User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Entries for Smb4K users.
# Generated by Smb4K. Please do not modify!
User_Alias SMB4KUSERS = madness
Defaults:SMB4KUSERS env_keep="PASSWD USER"
SMB4KUSERS Mad SMB4KUSERS Mad = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/smb4k_umount
SMB4KUSERS Mad = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/smb4k_mount
# End of Smb4K user entries.
NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/smb4k_kill



Ok, this is everything from nano /etc/sudoers

the only thing different there from my sudoers file is the smb4k stuff