I have a xubuntu pc at work, so I wanted to remove all users and create just one sudoer user with the name of the new person using the pc, so that he would be able to install programs etc. without having to disclose my admin password.  The steps I made were:   Created a new user: Jonathan, as administrator Deleted all desktop users and its files Logon as Jonathan Deleted the only sudoer user   Basically, my mistake was that I created an administrator user which is not a root user.   So now when I am going to install a program, xubuntu asks me for a root password, which of course I don't have, I believe that root user is a kind of root default user for Xubuntu.  So before I format the pc, I wondering if there is any other way to fix this?  One option could be to reboot the machine, then open the console as root from the recovery mode on GRUB, create a new user, etc.. This could be great but unfortunately the screen says out of range when I try to start recovery mode, and in order to change the resolution for that screen I need to modify a file that requires root permissions. So basically I am stuck on a endless-loop. I could use another monitor with higher resolution and that might allow me to boot as recovery mode.   So how would you fix this issue, without swapping monitor, and formatting the pc? Is there a default password for that Xubuntu Root user?  This is not duplicated, as I cannot log into recovery mode or GRUB because of the resolution.
2318
I clean-installed Ubuntu 11.10 today, and then installed VirtualBox.  This required me to add myself to the vboxusers group, and since 11.10 seems to no longer have a graphical app to add users to a group, I ran the following command:  sudo usermod -G vboxusers stephane   This is a problem.  I now see what I should have run instead is:  sudo usermod -aG vboxusers stephane   The end result is I'm no longer in the groups I should be in.  Including whatever group is required to run "sudo".  When I run any command as sudo now, I get the following:  $ sudo ls [sudo] password for stephane:  stephane is not in the sudoers file.  This incident will be reported.   Is there a way to fix this, or do I need to re-install from scratch again?
43948
How do I do this? I created a user without a home directory and now I want to create one. Not just a folder called new_user, I want the default home directory with all it's folders and hidden files, etc.
39784
Unsolved mystery - I was given a coworker's Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS machine and set up my own (sudo/admin) user on there from the command line. I switched to my user (from his sudo/admin user) and confirmed everything was okay using the groups command and the /etc/passwd file looked great. After months of everything working perfectly, a power outage shut down the machine for the first time since I inherited it.  After booting, my new user disappeared. It's not in the /etc/passwd file and there is no entry in the /home directory. I created the user the same as I did before, and there were no errors to indicate that the user still existed.  What happened?  As requested, here is the output of   olduser@machine:~$ ls -lait /home  total 16  3408126 drwxr-xr-x 2 newuser newuser 4096 Nov 20 10:28 newuser  3407873 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Nov 20 10:28 .  3407874 drwxr-xr-x 36 coworker coworker 4096 Nov 20 10:00 bvillupu  2 drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 4096 Oct 3 2012 ..  3408259 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 Aug 9 2012 .directory -&gt; /etc/kubuntu-default-settings/directory-home
106407
I'm working on Xubuntu 15.04. I already installed the MariaDB-Server on various systems and was always asked for a root password during installation. This time, however, I don't remember being asked for the password. When I try to login without a password (or a blank password), I get the Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' error.  I tried uninstalling the package completely by  sudo apt-get remove mariadb-server sudo apt-get purge mariadb-server   When I reinstalled, I still didn't get asked for the root password.  I tried the mysqld --skip-grant-tables approach from  . I can modify the password for the root user in the mysql database - at least the hash value changes - but I still cannot login with the new password after a restart of the mysql-server. I still get the same error.  The user debian-sys-maint does not exist. So, I cannot use it to fix anything.   Any ideas what else I could try?
93990
I installed Ubuntu on my PC. To log in, I use the username and password I created during installation. Does this mean I am a root user? If yes, then how do I become non-root? It looks like non-root user is more secure than admin user.
50998
Accidentally removed my gnome desktop and am stuck in tty1. Trying to reinstall the desktop and keep getting the error "user is not in the sudoers file". Having trouble adding my user, new to debian and am not sure how to correctly open/edit sudoers from tty1 (or really how to edit files from cmd line for that matter if someone could please lend some specifics)!
83132
I'm using WinSCP to access Unix computers. How can I change user after I have logged into a Unix server using WinSCP?  E.g. I have personal account in Unix computer A. I can log into this computer using PuTTY and then change user to root user  $sudo /usr/bin/su - rootuser   How can I do the same thing using WinSCP? I don't know the password for rootuser.
10370
To designate a user as an administrator from the GUI, you can simply open-up that user's properties and select the Account type as the "Administrator" option.    If the user already exists, what effect does selecting this account type have at the system level?  (added to sudo group, modification to /etc/passwd or /etc/sudoers...etc)  And how would I accomplish this (designating a user as an "Administrator") from the command line?
37986
Possible Duplicate:          I've just had someone install Ubuntu 12.04. I am not a techie - just a user. I am now asked for a password which I do not have and has never been set. Is there a default one? Otherwise I have to work as a guest all the time... Not so great. I appreciate any help.
116764
I have installed Ubuntu using the GUI, giving myself a password and everything. I do not intricately remember the process. However, what worries me is that I don't know the following password:  $ su Password: &lt;the only password I've ever created on this machine&gt; su: Authentication failure   I just don't know what to do. I'm not in trouble, but I just want to know what's going on here. I can also lock myself out of directories:  starkers@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ mkdir foobs starkers@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo chmod 777 -R foobs sudo: /var/lib/sudo writable by non-owner (040777), should be mode 0700 [sudo] password for starkers: &lt;the only password I've ever created on this machine&gt;  starkers@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ cd foobs bash: cd: foobs: Permission denied   I'm just a bit confused. How can I lock myself out like this? I think sudo is the key command here. But I'm making the foobs file as open as it can possibly be via the chmod, so why does it lock me out?
33652
I made a mistake in the username at the time of installation. So I changed the name of the user after logging in by creating a guest account with SUDO rights. But when I checked the list of users using ls /home command I am not seeing the new name for the user instead Old name is appearing. But I use the new name to login.   Is it like I need to change the name inside Home directory separately? Also , if there is any other changes needs to be done .. ?
82403
After I read  I noticed that there is a user account named 'nobody' in my Ubuntu system.   Also I noticed that I can login in this account from terminal using the following command and my password:  sudo su nobody     It doesn't mind me at all, but I want to know what is the purpose of this user? Is it created by default on a fresh install of Ubuntu or is created by installing a particular package?
58117
Why does Ubuntu not allow the GUI users to login as root at the time of system start up like administrator in Windows?  Why they are restricting us to login only through the terminal?
118380
I am trying to understand how user permissions work in Linux. The kernel boots and starts init as root, right? Init then runs startup scripts and runs getty (agetty), again as root. Agetty just reads user name and runs login, still as root, I think. Nothing interesting yet. But what does login do? I wasn't able to find anything better than "it attempts to log in". Suppose login finds that password matches (and we trying to log in as usual user), how does it change user id? I thought that there should be system call for that but I wasn't able to find it (maybe I'm just blind?)    Also, about su. su has the 'setuid' bit set so when we run it, it always runs as root. But when we tell it to log in as usual user, it again needs to change user id. Do I understand correctly that the same "magic" happens in su and login when they need to change user? If so, why have two different programs? Is there any additional sorts of serious business happening when running login?
46038
I just bought a new laptop with ubuntu installed on it. When i first turned on the laptop ubuntu started with an error and restarted. Then when it turned on again i only had the guest session option. I've tried, but i can't use sudo in the terminal: Sudo: unable to change to root gid: operation not permitted Sudo: unable to initialize policy plugin I tried the recovery path too, but i don't have a username and can't do anything. I can only go in guest session. Please help, sorry if this is something obvious to do, it's my first time opening ubuntu.
79027
What is the different between an Normal user account and the Admin account in Ubuntu?  You must always enter your password if you want do something. Can you give a Normal account  "limitations" to do not install or remove anything or to not open any program? Can you also "hide/deactive" the terminal and console for a normal user?
13155
I want to create a new user to run a service on the system but don't want to have /home and other configuration files for it. Like there is a user for postgres but it doesn't have any /home directory.