Ubuntu user's report

[Rick Bowers]

Alma,

Thank you.  Your (short) reply gives me an answer I can use, and your 
<rant> </rant> explains what I was trying to say.

Anyway, thank you all for helping.  I now understand how sudo works and 
humbly concede to ... well, whatever.

I tried getting to a shell in Ubunto before asking my question here, but it 
kept asking me for a password (I assumed it wanted root's password) so I 
couldn't get to the shell to get to 'man'.  So, since I didn't understand 
'sudo', I couldn't get to 'man' to see how 'sudo' works -- your standard 
vicious cycle.

I'm better now, thanks.

~Rick

At 03:13 PM 1/29/2005, you wrote:
>What was unclear from your reply, and obviously misunderstood by the 
>question, is what needs to be done to make sudo work.
>
>sudo <command to run as root>
>at the password prompt, enter your password, not root's.
>
>The original command {sudo root} failed because 'root' is not a linux 
>executable command.
>
><rant>
>While man/info is a great reference for the commands available, it is a 
>terrible resource for learning a new command.  (My opinion)  I am bothered 
>when the standard response is 'Go search 900 pages of documentation and 
>then you will be worthy to talk to me.'  Aren't there times when we can 
>just get a short, simple answer?  I know there are times when I need to 
>know quickly or just need to get something done so I can do my real 
>project.  Changing focus to study some esoterica not connected to what I 
>need to do is counterproductive in every sense.
>
>I thought the purpose of the list was to help each other over some of the 
>little sticking points so we can do our real work.
></rant>
>
>     -- Alma
>
>
>A. Khattri wrote:
>>On Sat, 29 Jan 2005, Rick Bowers wrote:
>>
>>>This response does not help me. I stated I've never used sudo before, so
>>>perhaps an explanation on how to use the command, or a pointer to some
>>>documentation would have been more useful.
>>
>>Well, on Unix, generally the first stop is "man sudo" and then the next
>>would be Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=sudo&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
>>(the sudo home page and the sudo manual are the first and second hits
>>respectively).
>>There's no magic here - these should be considered the most basic first
>>steps in ANY research.
>>
>>>I realize many people who participate in these lists are far more
>>>knowledgeable than others. The point of these lists is to help people, not
>>>scoff at them.
>>
>>I did in fact answer your question.
>>To quote the previous emails:
>>
>>>>>I've never used the sudo command before (new to linux) but I assume :-(
>>>>>it's the same as 'su''? When I type "sudo root" I'm prompted for root's
>>>>>password.  I tried <enter> but it fails.  Does anyone know what the 
>>>>>default
>>>>>is set to?
>>>>
>>>>Err... you're supposed to type your own password when using sudo.
>>
>>I think that was clear: you don't use root's password, you use your own
>>when using sudo.
>
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