Ubuntu – How to get sudo to accept the password

installationsudo

I am trying to install subversion on my Ubuntu 12.04 desktop. I follow the commands to start this process, using apt-get:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install subversion

Either of the above commands then ask me to enter my password. Though my user password allows me to get into Ubuntu, when I enter it here there is no echo back as I enter the password. It acts like nothing is being entered at all. Then when I hit enter, it tells me it failed x number of times. When I have tried to enter it the third time it bombs out and tells me this will be reported.

It does not tell me who it reports it to, considering it is my machine and my desktop installation of Ubuntu 12.04.

I am new to Linux but a very experienced Windows User. I am trying to switch mostly over to Linux (Ubuntu). Am I doing something wrong?

Best Answer

I think there might be a different problem here:

When you get your password wrong three times and you are in the sudo group the result is:

sudo: 3 incorrect password attempts

Only when you are NOT in the sudo group, will it say something like "this incident will be reported".

Therefore, check whether you are in the sudo group with id, which will show all the groups you belong to.

If you are not in the sudo group, then you will probably have to boot from a live CD and follow the instructions here (but add yourself to sudo rather than admin if you're running Ubuntu 12.04). You won't be able to use pkexec if you are not in the sudo group, so that won't be a solution unfortunately.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Execute sudo without Password

You can configure sudo to never ask for your password.

Open a Terminal window and type:

sudo visudo

In the bottom of the file, add the following line:

$USER ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Where $USER is your username on your system. Save and close the sudoers file (if you haven't changed your default terminal editor (you'll know if you have), press Ctl + x to exit nano and it'll prompt you to save).

As of Ubuntu 19.04, the file should now look something like

#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# Please consider adding local content in /etc/sudoers.d/ instead of
# directly modifying this file.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#
Defaults    env_reset
Defaults    mail_badpass
Defaults    secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/snap/bin"

# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Allow members of group sudo to execute any command
%sudo   ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

# See sudoers(5) for more information on "#include" directives:

#includedir /etc/sudoers.d

YOUR_USERNAME_HERE ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

After this you can type sudo <whatever you want> in a Terminal window without being prompted for the password.

This only applies, to using the sudo command in the terminal. You'll still be prompted for your password if you (for example) try to install a package from the software center

gui password prompt

Ubuntu – My password can log me in, but nothing else (“user is not in the sudoers file” error when I try)

You can boot into recovery mode, start a root shell from there and add your user account to the sudo group with adduser USERNAME sudo.

Another solution is, once you are in the root shell, to edit the sudoers file as the thread you linked suggests.

See Broke my sudoers password, how do I reset it without using sudo? for details.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Execute sudo without Password

Ubuntu – My password can log me in, but nothing else (“user is not in the sudoers file” error when I try)

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