Ubuntu- no administrative abilities

Ok, so I installed ubuntu and was fiddling with all of the settings (unlike windows it doesn't warn you if you do something stupid) and I somehow disabled my own ability to modify administrative stuff or modify user priviledges. That was silly. So now I can't get all of my video drivers etc. working.

Anyhow, I have no clue what to do... I tried logging in as root, but I'm not a sudoer apparently. Any ideas?

If this doesn't work I can just get rid of my ubuntu install, I was thinking of getting SUSE 10.1 and using KDE, but I'm a total newbie. Any help appreciated.

Thanks,

Cyrus

 

Cyrus,

If you can't sudo [command] then somehow you've removed your account from the /etc/sudoers file, or removed your user account from the wheel group maybe? Anyway being able to login to the root account isn't sudoer related. If the root account is disabled and you can't issue a sudo [command], then you may need to reinstall. BTW, the default pw for the root account should be ubuntu.

Lastly I don't use Ubuntu, I use Gentoo. But if I didn't use Gentoo I'd definitely use Ubuntu, it is a very user friendly distro, with good and growing support. A great place for more help and tutelage on Ubuntu, is their forums..

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

 

Open a shell and type "sudo su". Then enter your password.

If this doesn't let you become root, you can boot with a LiveCD such as Knoppix and:

1. Mount your Linux partition; let's assume you mounted it on /media/hda3. Knoppix shows you some desktop icons corresponding to partitions it can mount, so you only need to click on them and identify which one is your Linux partition.
2. As root, type on a console "chroot /media/hda3" (Be aware that /dev/hda3 won't work. You have to specify the mount point.)
3. Type "passwd" and enter a password. Note that this one will be the root password, this has nothing to do with the password of normal users.

Now you can reboot and login as your normal user, not as root. Open a console and type "su". Enter the root password and you'll become root.

 

Ok, I'll try getting the sudo stuff to work...

This might be a silly q, but if I can just use a live CD to change root's password, wouldn't that be a security issue for linux... all one would have to do to get control of other linux computers would be to pop in your own live CD? Can this be?

Cyrus

 

It's the same as if I had physical access to your Windows computer, Cyrus. If I have physical access to just about ANY machine, I can get any data off of it. Period. It's not a Linux security thing if you forget to lock your front door, or leave your laptop in the library

 

I'm not blaming linux for failing to make my data safe or anything, I'm just amazed that getting superuser abilities would be THAT easy if you have physical access!!! Wow. Since I already have my ubuntu live CD, do you think that would work to set the root password and get things working? I assume it would.

I'll try in any case, and sorry if these are noob questions.

Cyrus

 

... well.. suggestions you could program yourself an encrypted password and username for your linux if you understand perl... its not all that difficult... and then when it boots you would have to imput a PW and Username... making it almost hacker resistant even if they are right behind you with a knife...

however, then you have to consider paranoia?....

 

Password level security is never 100% effective if an attacker has physical access to the hardware. There are things you can do to help things though.

• Reset options for booting from floppy/CD in your BIOS, then password protect your BIOS. Of course, if they can get into your PCs case they can do a hard reset, so a padlock also comes in handy.

• Reconfigure LILO/GRUB to prevent the passing of boot options, otherwise root access is as easy as "linux single"...

You have to remember that *nix security comes from the good old days when the machine running the OS was securely locked away where only a handful of people could reach it.

 

Even Windows security isn't perfect when you have physical access to the machine though It's just something you have to realize and deal with.

 

Back to topic ;-)
You don't even need a live CD. You just have to append the parameter "init=/bin/sh" to your kernel in Grub, then the system will boot immediately to a root account - without password. (It replaces the standard init process just with a shell...)
This isn't a real security issue. It's perfectly normal that you can gain every access you want on every operating system when booting another system. That's unavoidable. But: You can encrypt whole partitions on Linux - that's safe, it only requires a bit of work ;-)
(But in my opinion unnecessary, it's a lot easier to use a BIOS and ATA password.)

Regards
Aaron

 

I have the same problem. I checked my files and I have hda1, hda2, and hda5, but no hda3? Can I copy hda5 and rename it hda3, would that work?

 

No!
hda3 was an example. You have to use your root partition, you can find the name of this device file (it's no real file) with "mount":
Search a line like "/dev/sda8 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)". In my case, sda8 is the root partition.

Regards
Aaron