very basic about initial install

[NoOp]

On 04/26/2008 08:50 AM, reader at newsguy.com wrote:

> 
> How might I get to a root login?  
> 
> When I try to sudo I'm told my machine name won't resolve... when I
> try to create a network I told I don't have the privs.  Do actully
> have to redo the install and chose `root' when it asked for a user
> name?
> 
> 

The bug links that David and Mario gave you are most likely the issue. I
had a similar issue on one of my machines.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sudo/+bug/32906

You may find that 'su' works, but I'd recommend:

Boot to "recovery" (second item in your grub menu). When it finishes
initialising, select "root   Drop to a root shell prompt". Then:

cd /etc
nano hosts

Now edit the first two lines to show:

127.0.0.1 localhost <username>
127.0.1.1 <username>

Where username is your normal system user name. Note: if you are not
familiar with Nano, you edit using the up/down/right/left arrows &
backspace - that's the easiest for a simple change like this.

Ctrl-O to write out the file, Ctrl-X to exit.

#reboot now

and then boot as normal.

That hopefully will fix the 'sudo' and privileges problems.