Don't be afraid, it's really easy to fix this. It will require a reboot, but unless you already have data corruption, you won't lose anything. I am assuming you do not have the password for root. If you do, ignore this, and login as root.
Boot to a LiveCD, and mount the hard drive. Open the /etc/shadow file, and find an root account. The first field (fields are separated by a colon) is the username, root. The second is the encrypted password for that account. Delete the password portion (leave the colons). Save the file, and reboot back to the hard drive. Now the password will be blank for the root account. Now that you are in, edit the /etc/sudoers file with the visudo command. Jeremiah E. Bess Network Ninja, Penguin Geek, Father of four On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 15:27, Kari Matthews <[email protected]> wrote: > I am admin'ing a file server that has an odd problem. > > I am the admin account on the server and have all admin privileges ... > except that now it says I'm not on the list of sudoers. There are a few > other accounts on the server, but no one remembers the passwords I gave > them. > > What can I do to administer this machine now? How can I add myself back to > the list of sudoers if I can't sudo to get to anything? > > How do I get the data off of here and keep it intact? > > I am scared to reboot the machine for fear that they will somehow manage to > not have access. > > Ideas? > > ~kari > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users > Group. > To post a message, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] > For more options, visit our group at > http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit our group at http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup
