very basic about initial install

[reader at newsguy.com]

Mario Vukelic <mario.vukelic at dantian.org> writes:

R> On Sat, 2008-04-26 at 12:57 -0500, reader at newsguy.com wrote:
>> Once I started trying to use the new install I began to see how
>> crippled it was in terms of doing things the unix/linux way,
>> established over decades of linux and unix use.  And use of numerous
>> distribution over the years.
>
> It's not crippled at all. And Linux distros have changed over time,
> partly to become more complicated in that your command line usage needs
> to tie in with the rest of the system. That said, every distro I used
> (sine 95 or so) has required to observe its idiosyncrasies, e.g., to
> preserve one's changes over system updates. 
>
>
>> Some other distros also hide the command line 
>
> How does Ubuntu hide the command line? Isn't the terminal readily
> available in Applications > Accessories or at the virtual terminals?

I should have said `root' cmdline... but anyone following the thread
would have know that was the intent.

You seem to be set on ignoring the part about sudo failing as you've
quoted below.

> <snip>
>> Apparently `sudo' is that way with Ubuntu, but only if your network
>> dns is able to `find' your machine.  Or at least that appears to be
>> the failure message when I attempted to use sudo to access root on a
>> recent desktop install of ubuntu inside a vmware on MS vista.
>> 
>> It seems like really poor design to have complicated and possibly no
>> access to a root terminal.  Why not just establish a root passwd
>> during install....? I can't imagine why designers would have opted to
>> make that difficult.
>
> There are reasons that have been discussed to death. And enabling the
> root accound is a one-liner. Read
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

Sorry, I bet this has been ridden into the ground.  I really just want
to get started and would appreciate being able to do it the manual
text file way.  A terminal cmdline with no root access is pretty
useless for that.   And I'll state here again that in the (now deleted)
desktop install SUDO FAILED due to some kind of dns problem. 

The error message said something to the effect that my machine name
could not be resolved

Like this:

sudo passwd root
  
 (Error alluding to machine not resolving)

Then back to a prompt... with no root available.

This is a vmware guest on windows vista so networking may be getting
confused (I choose bridged in vmware dialog)

Sorry for the line noise... I'll see what happens with the server
install.