very basic about initial install

[Tony Arnold]

reader at newsguy.com wrote:

> 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

Not sure what you were trying to do here. The usual way is to type the
word sudo followed by the command you want to execute as root. It then
prompts you for your own password. Subsequent use of sudo within some
time limit will not need your password again.

If you want to do lots of commands as root, then 'sudo -i' will do it.

Regards,
Tony.
-- 
Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester,
IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039
E: tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk, H: http://www.man.ac.uk/Tony.Arnold