sudo password incorrect. help

[Meganlorene]

alright the other night I log in as su root password was fine, then it asks for password for sudo so I type it and it's apparently wrong and I have no permissions to install software on Linux apps. and I keep getting this in the terminal I don't know what to do.

 

[Lobo1980]

Do you have the language set correctly?

I mean, if you set your password during installation and it has special characters (!"#$%&/()=) they may have changed their location when you type them.

Especially if you are not a native English speaker and you set the keyboard to your language (My case).

 

[Meganlorene]

Do you have the language set correctly?

I mean, if you set your password during installation and it has special characters (!"#$%&/()=) they may have changed their location when you type them.

Especially if you are not a native English speaker and you set the keyboard to your language (My case).

yea language is English and password has no special characters and has been the same one for a few months. its letting me log in via su root but then when I try to do certain things it ask for sudo password and tells me it's incorrect. and gives the lecture about privacy.... I seen it say add my username to the sudoers group....sorry I have read so much on Google trying to figure it out.

 

[gvisoc]

Can you paste the error message verbatim for us to check? I'm more inclined to think that you miss either a package to configure your system, or to add your user to the right group.

 

[Lobo1980]

What distribution are you using?

Does you have a root password and a user one?

Have you try to change the password?

To Add your user to the sudoers you have to run in terminal:

sudo visudo

Or even better run:

su

EDITOR=nano visudo

 

[Brickwizard]

Silly I know but you didn't inadvertently have either cap lock on, or number lock on [off on laptop]?

 

[Meganlorene]

Silly I know but you didn't inadvertently have either cap lock on, or number lock on [off on laptop]?

no I sure didn't

 

[Meganlorene]

What distribution are you using?

Does you have a root password and a user one?

Have you try to change the password?

To Add your user to the sudoers you have to run in terminal:

sudo visudo

Or even better run:

su

EDITOR=nano visudo

 

[Brickwizard]

I don't know if this will work for you , but it has for me on most Ubuntu/Debian builds
at grub screen, scroll down and select advanced features [words may vary with build]
select and open
now scroll down to recovery mode and open
open shell prompt [terminal]
Remount the root with write access. ...
Reset username or password.
boot

 

[Lobo1980]

its letting me log in via su root but then when I try to do certain things it ask for sudo password and tells me it's incorrect.

Let me try to understand.

1.- You have 2 passwords?

One is correct and the other is not?

and gives the lecture about privacy..

That lecture is just if you share your PC with others and you acces their acounts. But I don't think is your case. Ignore it.

2.- After [sudo] password for meganlorene:

What happens when you type your login password? (The one you use to access your system).

3.- Can you login as root?

I mean if you type

su

In the terminal and you type your password, can you access as root?

 

[arochester]

Try this...
To become Root in Debian type: su -
(NOTE the hyphen!)

(as Root) apt-get install sudo
usermod -a -G sudo <username>

Replace <username> with your username to which you want to grant sudo access.

Now logout & login to get sudo access to those users.

 

[Brickwizard]

I have just noticed from your 2nd pict. You are using Penguin Linux, I haven't even seen it on over 18 yrs, things may have changed, from memory this is how I fixed the last one
open terminal
type in $ sudo
enter
type in $ sudo su [ it may have been sudo -su ]
enter
and it gave the choice to change the admin password
but as I said, that's 18 years or so ago

 

[forester]

Should @arochester's suggestion not work because it is not possible to become root with

su -

Reboot, hold left-hand Shift key to get to GRUB, choose kernel, edit it by hitting 'e';
Go to kernel line, go to end of line and insert the word 'single' without quotation marks and boot with F10

This will put user at a prompt, where, first

passwd root

Then

passwd (UserName)

or for new user

useradd -m (NewUserName)

then

passwd (NewUserName)

Reinstall sudo if you want, as our moderator said,

 

[Brickwizard]

Just one other point, as far as I am aware, penguin is dead, it was last updated in 2012, the nearest equivalent I can think of is Puppy Linux

 

[arochester]

@Brickwizard

cat /etc/debian_version

10.2

Confusion because the computer is called Penguin?

 

[Brickwizard]

sorry, bad day

 

[Meganlorene]

Let me try to understand.

1.- You have 2 passwords?

One is correct and the other is not?



That lecture is just if you share your PC with others and you acces their acounts. But I don't think is your case. Ignore it.

2.- After [sudo] password for meganlorene:

What happens when you type your login password? (The one you use to access your system).

3.- Can you login as root?

I mean if you type



In the terminal and you type your password, can you access as root?

well I fixed it I'm assuming, everything is back to normal. Linux storage was full and started clearing unused apps and it works now. thanks to everyone who tried to help.