Thanks, everyone. I did figure out one guy's password and used sudo to add myself back to the sudoers list. Now, I'm back in business. However, this was a good learning experience. They asked me to disable all passwords ... ugh, after this, how could they think *that's* a good idea?
Wow. ~kari On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 9:48 AM, Guan Hsu <[email protected]> wrote: > Kari, > > Since you are having trouble with sudo, my guess is that none of above > mentioned methods doing through sudo, etc. is going to work. > > If 'sudo -i' or enabling root login works, that is great. Otherwise, > you need to boot the system into single user mode, which by default I > believe do not require root password (at least that is the case in Red > Hat land). Here is a link to boot into single user, or recovery mode > for Ubuntu: > > http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-boot-ubuntu-linux-rescue-mode/ > > Once you are there you can edit your /etc/sudoers file or enable root > login. Here is a suggestion of some general best practice, > > - Make sure you back up your critical data first before you do > anything. > - Read thru the instructions carefully (and practice it on another > system if possible) > - Device a plan of attack and think through the steps you are going > to do before doing anything there. Test your steps on a spare system > if possible. > > A root user in single user mode is almost your last line of defense > before wiping out and rebuild. You have all the power to alter the > system. When you mess up the system, it can be in a unrecoverable > state if you are not careful. I don't think anyone who replies here > has a system in the state you described, or know why and hence can > duplicate the problem you have. So proceed with great care. > > If you are not totally sure, discuss your plan of attack here. > Hopefully I'll be at where I have a Ubuntu box to play with and to > verify your steps to be of some real help (I am at work, and all of > our servers are RHEL/CentOS) and desktops are Fedora. Sorry, Ubuntu > fans. As hot as it is for Linux home users, and as much as I like it, > Ubuntu hasn't quite make it into work place yet. > > Hope this helps! > > Guan Hsu > > > On Jul 15, 11:11 pm, Paul Tader <[email protected]> wrote: > > ..and/or can you send us the output from the command: > > > > $ sudo -l > > > > On 07/15/2010 06:16 PM, Jeremiah Bess wrote: > > > > > > > > > Can you run cat on the "/etc/sudoers" file? > > > > > Jeremiah E. Bess > > > Network Ninja, Penguin Geek, Father of four > > > > > On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 16:47, Kari Matthews <[email protected] > > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > > Okay, let's see. > > > > > I can't do this b/c I can't sudo anything. Or am I wrong? I have > > > not yet touched the server b/c I want to make sure I know what I'm > > > doing before I get into this. > > > > > How would you guess I fell off the sudo list? > > > > > On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 4:40 PM, Jeremiah Bess > > > <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > > Ubuntu did things differently, and there is no set root > > > password, and the account is locked. This method should work to > > > enable the root account. You can disable it as well. Here is > > > some info I just dug up on it: > > > > > > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo#Enabling%20the%20root%20ac... > > > > > Jeremiah E. Bess > > > Network Ninja, Penguin Geek, Father of four > > > > > On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 15:36, Kari Matthews < > [email protected] > > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > > Thank you! I've googled a ton and didn't come up with > this, > > > so your directions are helpful. > > > > > I am wondering, though, how something like this happens. > > > > > Also, it's a Ubuntu machine (10.04) -- is there a root > > > password? The only password I ever created was my own when > > > I installed. I assumed there was no root password. > > > > > Thanks again. > > > > > ~kari > > > > > On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 4:33 PM, Jeremiah Bess > > > <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> > > > wrote: > > > > > 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] <mailto:[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] > > > <mailto:[email protected]> > > > To unsubscribe, send email to > > > [email protected] > > > <mailto: > [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] > > > <mailto:[email protected]> > > > To unsubscribe, send email to > > > [email protected] > > > <mailto:[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] > > > <mailto:[email protected]> > > > To unsubscribe, send email to > > > [email protected] > > > <mailto:[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] > > > <mailto:[email protected]> > > > To unsubscribe, send email to > > > [email protected] > > > <mailto:[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] > > > <mailto:[email protected]> > > > To unsubscribe, send email to > > > [email protected] > > > <mailto:[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 > > -- > 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. 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