Lost some of account rights

[Rashkae]

Patton Echols wrote:
> On 04/28/2007 11:48 AM, OOzy Pal wrote:
>> I was trying to add me login name to group www-data so I did
>>
>> usermod -g www-data hab
>> usermod -G www-data hab
>>
>> now, I lost my system menu. When I click on System I see only limited
>> items. How can I re-gain my right.
>>
>>   
> FWIW, I'm pretty much a noob, but reading some man pages . . .:
> 
> It looks like the problem is the use of the "-G" option.  The man page 
> says that, if you don't list all your existing groups, then "usermod -G" 
> will remove the user from any groups not listed.  So to add yourself 
> back, you need to list all of the groups you should belong to. 
> 
> Here is the section from man usermod
> "
>    -G, --groups GROUP1[,GROUP2,...[,GROUPN]]]
>           A list of supplementary groups which the user is also a member of.
>           Each group is separated from the next by a comma, with no
>           intervening whitespace. The groups are subject to the same
>           restrictions as the group given with the -g option. If the user is
>           currently a member of a group which is not listed, the user 
> will be
>           removed from the group. This behaviour can be changed via -a 
> option,
>           which appends user to the current supplementary group list.
> 
> "
> 
> And here is the output on my system of "grep patton /etc/group"
> 
> adm:x:4:patton
> dialout:x:20:cupsys,patton
> cdrom:x:24:haldaemon,patton
> floppy:x:25:haldaemon,patton
> audio:x:29:patton
> dip:x:30:patton
> video:x:44:patton
> plugdev:x:46:haldaemon,patton
> lpadmin:x:109:patton
> scanner:x:111:cupsys,hplip,patton
> patton:x:1000:
> admin:x:114:patton
> 
> If my system is typical, then you would want to do:
> 
> usermod -G 
> adm,dialout,cdrom,floppy,audio,dip,video,plugdev,lpadmin,scanner,hab,admin
> 
> WARNING:  man usermod also says that the groups must exist.  Check to be 
> sure before you do this.
> 
> Better yet, see if someone who really knows can give you a better answer.
> 
> GL
> 


Unfortunately, with the -G option that was used, the only admin account 
(which gives you right to sudo) was nuked.

You'll have to reboot into a root shell and add yourself to the admin 
group from there. (Sorry, I don't remember how Ubuntu boot menu is setup 
by default, and can't verify atm)

For future reference, the command to add an account to a group is usermod -a

-g will overwrite your default group (something you probably don't want 
to do), and as you've seen, -G will eliminate all your group memberships.