Problems with "sudo"

[robher]

Hello all,

Running Mint 9 off a LiveUSB. I can't sudo. After some searching, the problem appears to be related to permissions in /etc/sudoers:

mint@mint ~ $ ls -l /etc/sudoers
-r--r----- 0 root root 1307 Jun 12 2010 /etc/sudoers

I'm stuck in a loop. I can't change the permissions on /etc/sudoers because I need to sudo in order to do that. Googling tells me I should start in recovery mode, but I can't find a way to do that (tried "Linux single" at the boot prompt, but that doesn't work).

Thanks in advance for your help!

Sample sudo output:

mint@mint ~ $ sudo ls
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 0 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 1 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 2 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 3 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 4 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 5 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 6 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 7 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 8 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 9 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 10 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 11 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 12 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 13 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 14 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 15 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 16 <<<
>>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 17 <<<
sudo: parse error in /etc/sudoers near line 0
sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting

[bob5]

hi

- what are you doing with sudo ,what are you running as sudo ?


Thanks

[Midnighter]

What are you trying to actually do?

LiveUSB? Did you install to it, or did you copy the iso to it with something like unetbootin?

[robher]

What are you trying to actually do?

LiveUSB? Did you install to it, or did you copy the iso to it with something like unetbootin?

Copied the ISO using http://www.linuxliveusb.com/ and created a 4Gb persistent casper storage.

[robher]

hi

- what are you doing with sudo ,what are you running as sudo ?


Thanks

This happens with any program I run with sudo. Originally detected it because I couldn't open the Update Manager ("++ Launching mintUpdate in root mode, waiting for it to kill us...") Did some further digging and figured out it was a problem with sudo.

[bob5]

hi

-did you check the MD5 when making the stick ?


thanks

[Midnighter]

I'm of the mind that your image download (ISO) is flawed. Doesn't take much. But this should not be the case, and the most likely cause is a flaw in your image used to create this.

[robher]

I'm of the mind that your image download (ISO) is flawed. Doesn't take much. But this should not be the case, and the most likely cause is a flaw in your image used to create this.

I created the live USB the day Mint 9 was released. Everything was working fine until a couple of days ago...

Either way, I decided to reinstall the drive (using the same ISO I had used last time) and I can once again sudo. Funny thing is, the file has the same permissions, so that couldn't have been the problem. It was probably just corrupted.

In case it ever happens again, can anyone tell me how to start in recovery mode?

Thanks!

[bob5]

hi

In case it ever happens again, can anyone tell me how to start in recovery mode?

try https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromUSB

[vincent]

Hmmm...well, you could've just booted off of a Live CD/USB, mounted your Mint / partition, and edit the sudoers file by hand in the Live CD/USB session instead of completely re-installing. Keep that in mind next time if this happens again.

[Midnighter]

Hmmm...well, you could've just booted off of a Live CD/USB, mounted your Mint / partition, and edit the sudoers file by hand in the Live CD/USB session instead of completely re-installing. Keep that in mind next time if this happens again.

The USB WAS his install, so a tad more awkward. :/

[vincent]

Oops...didn't read the OP's post carefully enough. That makes things harder, I guess. -_-

[bob5]

hi

- i've being googling does this help ? http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/fixsudo

[robher]

hi

- i've being googling does this help ? http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/fixsudo

Thanks for the tip. Hope I never have the problem again, but it's good to have this reference just in case.

[bob5]

hi

-good to know
-please mark as sovled in the subject of the frist post


happy minting !