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When I click a program that requires root password, I enter it and it works.

When I go to the terminal and need to do something that requires the password, it gets rejected.

I've tried many combinations, nothing seems to work. What can be wrong here?

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What command would you execute in terminal? – BloodPhilia Aug 29 '10 at 23:20
Keyboard mapping? Try typing the password in clear text in the terminal (while nobody is standing behind you ;-) ) and see if it comes up as expected. – user12889 Aug 30 '10 at 1:12
@BloodPhilia: I need to edit some apache vhost files. – WebDevHobo Aug 31 '10 at 11:50
Yes, but what is the exact command that invokes the password prompt. – BloodPhilia Aug 31 '10 at 12:36
@BloodPhilia: sudo su - – WebDevHobo Sep 2 '10 at 15:23
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If sudo su - does not work, you might have restrictions in your /etc/sudoers file. Check, what actions is your user granted in that file.

Another reason might be that your desktop does not use sudo as backend for privilege granting.

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