Hi,

I've just installed Ubuntu for the first time, and I'm having some problems.

First of all, I seem to have ended up with some kind of minimum install - ruby is not installed, for example, and neither is any kind of graphical user interface (as far as I can tell). More importantly, though, I can't sudo. As far as I know, I only created one user when I installed - the user is called ben. When I'm logged in as ben, if I try to sudo I get this:


ben is not in the sudoers file.* This incident will be reported.

As a result, I can't do anything at all on the machine. I'm guessing I must have done something dumb when installing, but I don't know what it was! Can anyone help?


Thanks,

Ben

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Ben Coppin wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've just installed Ubuntu for the first time, and I'm having some problems.

What cd did you install from? The Server version does not have a gui,
or you may have chosen to do a base install from the alternate cd.

>
> First of all, I seem to have ended up with some kind of minimum install
> - ruby is not installed, for example, and neither is any kind of
> graphical user interface (as far as I can tell). More importantly,
> though, I can't sudo. As far as I know, I only created one user when I
> installed - the user is called ben. When I'm logged in as ben, if I try
> to sudo I get this:
>
> ben is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.

You should be able to boot in recovery mode and run adduser ben admin .
That will add ben to the admin group, which is the sudoer group.

You should also run groups ben . If you don't have a whole string of
groups, including adm dialout cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev
lpadmin at the very minimum you will have some other serious problems.
>
> As a result, I can't do anything at all on the machine. I'm guessing I
> must have done something dumb when installing, but I don't know what it
> was! Can anyone help?
>


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Thanks Richard,

> > I've just installed Ubuntu for the first time, and I'm having some problems.
>
> What cd did you install from? The Server version does not have a gui,
> or you may have chosen to do a base install from the alternate cd.

I think this is the answer: I must have gone with the Server version
instead of the Desktop version. I'll reinstall with the Desktop
version, I think.

Ben

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Ben Coppin wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've just installed Ubuntu for the first time, and I'm having some problems.
>
> First of all, I seem to have ended up with some kind of minimum install -
> ruby is not installed, for example, and neither is any kind of graphical
> user interface (as far as I can tell). More importantly, though, I can't
> sudo. As far as I know, I only created one user when I installed - the user
> is called ben. When I'm logged in as ben, if I try to sudo I get this:
>
> ben is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
>
> As a result, I can't do anything at all on the machine. I'm guessing I must
> have done something dumb when installing, but I don't know what it was! Can
> anyone help?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ben
>
>
Hi Ben I think your ben login may not be complete. You must have a
password for ben so you can log in. I would go to System Administration
Users and groups and check both your ben user and give root a password
you know. Now your better off :-)


Karl


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Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
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#450462 http://counter.li.org.
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Ben Coppin wrote:
> Thanks Richard,
>
>
>>> I've just installed Ubuntu for the first time, and I'm having some problems.
>>>
>> What cd did you install from? The Server version does not have a gui,
>> or you may have chosen to do a base install from the alternate cd.
>>
>
> I think this is the answer: I must have gone with the Server version
> instead of the Desktop version. I'll reinstall with the Desktop
> version, I think.
>
> Ben
>
>
The best idea of all!

Karl


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Linux User
#450462 http://counter.li.org.
PGP 4208 4D6E 595F 22B9 FF1C ECB6 4A3C 2C54 FE23 53A7


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On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 03:53:42PM -0700, Karl Larsen wrote:
> Ben Coppin wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've just installed Ubuntu for the first time, and I'm having some problems.
> >
> > First of all, I seem to have ended up with some kind of minimum install -
> > ruby is not installed, for example, and neither is any kind of graphical
> > user interface (as far as I can tell). More importantly, though, I can't
> > sudo. As far as I know, I only created one user when I installed - the user
> > is called ben. When I'm logged in as ben, if I try to sudo I get this:
> >
> > ben is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
> >
> > As a result, I can't do anything at all on the machine. I'm guessing I must
> > have done something dumb when installing, but I don't know what it was! Can
> > anyone help?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Ben
> >
> >
> Hi Ben I think your ben login may not be complete. You must have a
> password for ben so you can log in. I would go to System Administration
> Users and groups and check both your ben user and give root a password
> you know. Now your better off :-)
>
>
> Karl
>
>
> --
>
> Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
> Linux User
> #450462 http://counter.li.org.
> PGP 4208 4D6E 595F 22B9 FF1C ECB6 4A3C 2C54 FE23 53A7
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-users mailing list
> ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com
> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users


Short of loading a live cd and chrooting, what are his options in this case if he does not know the root password?

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Nick Stinemates wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 03:53:42PM -0700, Karl Larsen wrote:
>> Ben Coppin wrote:
>> >
>> > I've just installed Ubuntu for the first time, and I'm having some
>> > problems.
>> >
>> > First of all, I seem to have ended up with some kind of minimum install
>> > - ruby is not installed, for example, and neither is any kind of

Look, I know the whole world now thinks Ruby is the ultimate computer
language, but it's a little extreme to call an installation without
Ruby "minimal" :-)

>> > graphical user interface (as far as I can tell).

This begins to sound like the install quite finished.

>> Hi Ben I think your ben login may not be complete. You must have a
>> password for ben so you can log in. I would go to System Administration
>> Users and groups and check both your ben user and give root a password
>> you know. Now your better off :-)

> Short of loading a live cd and chrooting, what are his options in this
> case if he does not know the root password?

Indeed. It's not possible to give root a password from the "ben" account if
ben can't sudo. And there's no good reason _to_ give root a password if
ben _can_ sudo.

It _should_ be possible to reboot into single-user mode, but since ben can't
sudo, I'm not even sure that would work.
--
derek


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Derek Broughton wrote:

>
> It _should_ be possible to reboot into single-user mode, but since ben can't
> sudo, I'm not even sure that would work.

If he hasn't set a root password, booting into single user (recovery
mode) will allow him root access. If he has a root password and has
forgotten it, adding init=/bin/sh to the grub kernel line will bypass
the password. At this point you can fix the root password and sudo.


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