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Possible Duplicate:
How do I add a user to the “sudo” group?
I've added myself back into the admin's group I think, by following this.
But I still can't do commands like:
sudo aptitude update
I get the message
oshirowanen is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
How do I add myself into the sudoers group now that I am in the admin group?
Login as root or su to get root prompt
type visudo
an editor will open find a line says
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
add one with your username below that
user ALL=(ALL) ALL
Type ctrl+x Type Y to the prompt
adduser <user> sudo instead? I.e. have him be member of both admin and sudo group? I find it a bit redundant otherwise.
Jul 12, 2012 at 17:22
If you're in the admin group (or the sudo group starting with Ubuntu 12.04) but that group isn't configured in /etc/sudoers to be able to run commands as root with sudo, you can fix that problem the same way you'd fix a broken sudoers file:
pkexec visudo
Then just edit the sudoers file to add whatever entries you need. In particular:
Ubuntu systems before 12.04, or those that were upgraded from a version before 12.04, should have this:
# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
Ubuntu 12.04 and later should have this (even if they also have the above lines because they were upgraded from an earlier release):
# Allow members of group sudo to execute any command
%sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
This pkexec method works (on desktop systems) because Ubuntu systems with a GUI installed have two separate mechanisms for administrators to perform actions as root: sudo, and PolicyKit.
See this question about a different but similar problem, if you're curious and want more information:
%sudo line existed already before 10.04. The only thing that's needed is to add the user to the sudo group (adduser <user> sudo). Still +1 for pkexec.
Jul 12, 2012 at 17:24
%admin line exists too. This question is about a system where those lines have somehow been removed, commented out, or modified so they no longer work. You're right in that it's arguably a good idea to have the sudo line in sudoers files in Ubuntu releases prior to 12.04, but practically speaking, it doesn't matter much. In contrast, you need the %admin line on any system where users are made administrators by inclusion in the admin group, and you need the %sudo line on a system where users are made administrators by inclusion in the sudo group.
Jul 12, 2012 at 17:30
sudo. Here, entries may actually be missing. So I think an optimal answer here must also explain how to add the usual entries to allow administrators to use sudo. I've attempted such an answer. I do not recommend that this question be made a duplicate of that one, because unlike with a "little" syntax error, answers there don't clarify how to edit.