su configuration error?

Here is one possible solution from Ubuntu forums

apt-get for some reason doesn't remove FAIL_DELAY etc. from /etc/login.defs even though they are not needed any more (and may not exist in that file). If you manually comment out those lines, everything should work.

You need to edit /etc/login.defs
as root

If that doesn't work, try
apt-get install --reinstall login

Mike

Use the wiki http://www.mepis.org/docs
great forum http://www.mepislovers.com

Well, commenting out the offending line in /etc/login.defs worked (I would have tried that, but I didn't know where the config file was!). But why is that neccessary? It seems that having a delay is good idea! Has that become redundant or something?

feheeszeno

Hi all,

I would like to make my ordinary user an sudoer. It seems that the way to do this is to use a special utility, visudo, which is intended precisely to make an ordinary user an sudoer. I find the man page a bit intimidating, though. Has anyone here been able to use visudo to make their ordinary user an sudoer?

feheeszeno

Hi feheeszeno. If you open a konsole and "cat /etc/sudoers" you will find some examples at the bottom of the file that are short and to the point. Use one of them as an example.

Unfortunately, I do not have access to my Mepis box at the moment, so I cannot give better instructions

When you use the visudo command, it makes sure that the /etc/sudoers file is backed up, and once you file the changes that the sudo daemon is restarted. However, if I'm going to change a file, I like to make my own backup:
# cp /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.todaysdate

Jon

Microsoft Windows Vista now on sale!
Buy now, Really Pay Later

Hi, Jon,

For some reason my /etc/sudoers does not contain any examples! (I am still using MEPIS 3.4-3, not 6.0-2, if it matters.) If someone here made their ordinary user an sudoer and can provide as an example the line they added, I will try to follow the instructions in the man page to do likewise.

feheeszeno

Hi feheeszeno.

Here's my /etc/sudoers file from my 6.0-1 version:

# sudoers file.
#
# This file MUST be edited with the "visudo" command as root.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#

# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# User privilege specification

root    ALL=(ALL) ALL

onthego ALL=/usr/sbin/mesm

%users  ALL=/usr/bin/apt-get -s upgrade

#                 

The bottom line is an option that allows the group users to be allowed to do the apt-get command.

Jon

Microsoft Windows Vista now on sale!

Buy now, Really Pay Later

Thanks, Jon!

Do I need to log out and back in for this to take effect?

How can I make only my nonroot user have these abilities?

feheeszeno