Ubuntu – How to make sudo remember the password and how to add an application to startup

10.04startupsudo

I guess this should be a simple thing for ubuntu users out there. I have two questions.

Whenever I need to run some command that requires permission from root, I run as sudo followed by that command. It would be nice if that does not prompt for password (but I should still be issuing a sudo to make sure that I know what I am doing). How to do this?
Every time I start my system, I go to terminal and start my VPN using sudo vpnc. This is almost everytime! How to automate this to a startup script?

Help much appreciated! Thanks

Best Answer

First Question

If you dont want to enter password everytime,then you should edit sudoers file.

sudo visudo
Then add the following line at the end of the file.

%username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
Now if you enter sudo followed by the command it wont prompt you to enter password.

Second Question

For your second question you can add that command sudo vpnc to startup applications.
To add that command in startup applications Goto System → Preferences → Startup Applications.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Running a startup program in terminal with sudo

If you want it at login and not startup (as I don't see how LXTerminal can be opened without X server being up), you have to add an exception to the /etc/sudoers file so that you won't be prompted for your password.

To do this, run sudo visudo and then add the following:

<your username> ALL = NOPASSWD: /home/d/Jarvis/alarm.py

Make sure that you add this at the end of the file for this to work. I would also set the permissions of alarm.py to executable for this to work. So, do this to set it as executable:

chmod +x /home/d/Jarvis/alarm.py

Hope it helps!

Ubuntu – How to make ‘sudo’ grab the password from a file

sudo doesn't read password from stdin by default. From sudo manpage:

-S  The -S (stdin) option causes sudo to read the password from the standard input instead of the terminal device.
    The password must be followed by a newline character.

So you should run:

sudo -S apt-get update <~/passwd.txt

Keep in mind that storing passwords in files is not a good practice. You should read: