access as root staying in another user

Question

i want to install a software in my linux machine staying in another user that i have created .It is asking for root access for some command to be execute during installation process.when I am trying to execute "sudo -s" its showing " is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.".what next will i do.I am in my ubuntu machine.

Answer 1

In general you don't want to edit /etc/sudoers every time you add a new user. All administrators are given sudo access by default, so you just want to give that user permission to administer the system as outlined here. This adds the user to the admin group.

The only time you want to edit /etc/sudoers is if you need more finely grained access than administrator or not, such as a user you want to be able to install new software, but not restart the web server, for example. Also, on the rare occasion you do want to change /etc/sudoers, you don't want to just edit it directly. You need to use the visudo command.

Answer 2

It looks like you've messed up your system, or created a new user without modifying the /etc/sudoers file. Login with an account you made when you've installed Ubuntu. Open up a shell, and type: sudo nano /etc/sudoers. Search for these lines:

# User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL) ALL

Add an additional entry below that, like yourusername ALL=(ALL) ALL.

Answer 3

You should log in as root and edit that user into the sudoers file, /etc/sudoers. Try man sudoers for the full file format documentation, or there should be helpful comments inside the file.