Catch 22 - need to be on sudoers list to add yourself!

[lindsey]

I'm really sorry if I sound a little irritated because that would be an understatement atm. My patience is really wearing thin with developers who seem to neglect really simple things: - in the live CD environment, you often have to perform tasks that require root privilege. You are told to add yourself to the sudoers file and so you do. Guess what - you need to be on the sudoer's file to add yourself to the sudoers file! That's proposterous! lol

Actually that wasn't the problem to begin with. The developers basically set a password for root and don't tell you what it is. But it's a live CD - it should *not* have a password for root! And if it does, it should be well documented. How am I supposed to perform vital tasks if I'm denied permission to do anything at every turn? In this respect, Mint is really letting itself down. The user is barred from doing vital tasks that need to be done. Other distros do not lock the user out of root in the live CD environment.

Am I missing something here? Because I've been all over forums for the last 2 hours and nobody has a solution to this problem. It is especially an issue with the Debian live CD.

[xenopeek]

Perhaps you should share what you are trying to do that is being blocked on the Live CD? And what version exactly you are running? I've just run LMDE 201109 Gnome Live CD, and can sudo all commands without it asking for a password. Same for Linux Mint 11 Gnome Live CD. No need to add yourself to the sudoers file on any Live CD, as you don't need a password to sudo from the Live CD.

[lindsey]

Atm, I am using the compatibility mode of the Mint 11 Katya CD, 201109. It demands a password for anything sudo-related.

In fact, I'm trying to revert configuration changes (edit cfg files) to my current Mint 11 installation which are preventing me from accessing my desktop. Hence the Live CD. Gotta make the changes from outside...

Does that tell you anything?

[istrandi]

Have you tried hitting enter at the password prompt (leave it blank i.e. no password)?

Thats the case on a few live CD's

[xenopeek]

Either you are using Linux Mint 11 Katya, or you are using LMDE 201109. Can't be both.

Don't use "compatibility mode", whatever that is. Just boot into the normal live session, mount your harddisk, browse to the mountpoint of the harddisk, browse to the where the cfg files are on that harddisk, open a terminal, and: gksudo gedit <filename>

Alternatively, you may want to keep a copy of SystemRescueCD or Knoppix around for this purpose (disaster recovery).

[lindsey]

@istrandi Yes, one of the first things I tried - it continues to insist you need to enter the correct password.

[lindsey]

Either you are using Linux Mint 11 Katya, or you are using LMDE 201109. Can't be both.

Don't use "compatibility mode", whatever that is. Just boot into the normal live session, mount your harddisk, browse to the mountpoint of the harddisk, browse to the where the cfg files are on that harddisk, open a terminal, and: gksudo gedit <filename>

Alternatively, you may want to keep a copy of SystemRescueCD or Knoppix around for this purpose (disaster recovery).

@xenopeek: Unfortunately, I have no choice in the matter - only compatibility mode works atm. I get a black screen otherwise...
Also, for some reason the compatibility mode of the Linux Mint 11 CD uses Debian Xfce. I know it sounds wrong, but it's not the definitely not the Gnome Desktop and it's branded as Debian.

[wayne128]

how about trying on terminal

sudo su

[lindsey]

how about trying on terminal

sudo su

Tried it. Didn't work.

[zerozero]

lindsey, not a solution, but a question are you running "live" from a dvd or a usb?

[Arcosanti]

If you are running from a DVD and are having unusual problems with it, you might want to check the iso file that you used to burn the DVD with against it's MD5 check sum for a match. If it does not match, you will want to redownload the iso and check the MD5 again. I failed to do that the first time and ran into some problems using Katya when I booted it up. It booted up fine but somethings on the DVD would not work or were not working correctly. The installation stuff was definitely hosed. I returned to Win XP and downloaded an MD5 checker and discovered the iso's MD5 didn't match. After the second attempt to download the iso the MD5 matched and everything on the DVD worked properly. If that does not solve your problem, You'll want to try some other Linux iso. In addition to the previously mentioned ones, I suggest Puppy Linux, or Hiren's Boot cd. Hiren's is a very useful disastery recovery boot cd that I used last year to recover my XP installation when the HD started showing signs of going south on me. It has a few different OS's that you can boot up with Linux being the most useful of them all.

[sagirfahmid3]

Reply to the guy above ^^ . In this case, its not MD5's problem. The probability of password being related to MD5 is really low. Nope, its something else thats the problem. I tried all Linux Mints from version 8 and up, and they never ask for a password, only username.

username: mint
password: {blank} (try putting in "mint" for the password as well and see if it works.)

[Roken]

Also, for some reason the compatibility mode of the Linux Mint 11 CD uses Debian Xfce. I know it sounds wrong, but it's not the definitely not the Gnome Desktop and it's branded as Debian.

Are you sure that you've downloaded the correct iso. Sounds like you have LMDE xfce edition, to me.