Question

user is not in the sudoers file

Asked by: ostraaten

Hi,
I think I screwed my Ubuntu 9.0.4 installation.

I was working on installing davfs2, because I wanted to mount WebDAV locations. Which is something that as a end user of Ubuntu I should have probably stayed the hell away of. Don't think it is suitable for end users. Things got nasty very quickly.

The thing with davfs2 is that you can only mount as root, which makes it useless for end users. Now the makers of davfs2 have come up with a 'user friendly' solution in the form of 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure davfs2'. This is were things get nasty because this particular utility doesn't do anything. The message stays the same 'mount: only root can do that'. At this point we start consulting Dr. Google for answers.

I found some article that mentions a davfs2 group, a group the user needs to be a part of. So I created this group using System > Adminstration > Users and Group and added myself to this group.

I thought this all went well but when I tried to use sudo command Ubuntu replied my user was no longer part of the sudoers list.

My question: am I right in thinking that at this point I need to reinstall Ubuntu? I mean, I don't think there is any way that I can make user part of the sudoers list again? I will need to issue some sudo command to do that right? And I can't anymore, right?

Thanks and Regards,
Onno


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Asked On
2009-11-02 at 13:42:06ID24865341
Tags

ubuntu sudo sudoers davfs2

Topics

Ubuntu

,

Linux

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: scifikillrPosted on 2009-11-02 at 14:19:57ID: 25724413

You will need physical access to the machine, but it is possible to regain your desired level of access without a reinstallation of Ubuntu.

Please see: http://www.debuntu.org/recover-root-password-single-user-mode-and-grub

 

by: scifikillrPosted on 2009-11-02 at 14:21:28ID: 25724422

This is, of course, assuming you can't already just use "su -" to become root temporarily (meaning you do not know your root pword).

 

by: ostraatenPosted on 2009-11-02 at 14:32:19ID: 25724500

I don't know the password of su. I never set it and it is not equal to my user password :(

I will try that link tomorrow, enough for today.

 

by: woolmilkporcPosted on 2009-11-03 at 00:51:27ID: 25727042

"su -" asks for root's password!

 

by: loliumPosted on 2009-11-03 at 11:21:06ID: 25732460

if all else fails 'ostraaten' then if its possible you could boot into root shell by choosing recovery mode on grub if you use grub and when on you will be root so you could add that user to sudoes again

Hope this is a valid solution

Lolium

 

by: scifikillrPosted on 2009-11-03 at 11:52:19ID: 25732803

Please note: lolium's solution is the same one I outlined in ID: 25724413

 

by: ostraatenPosted on 2009-11-03 at 12:52:44ID: 31649113

Thanks

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