sudo: must be setuid root! I need to change the ownership of /usr/bin to root

[kubicle]

I just miss the ability to use su.

You can use 'sudo -i' in place of 'su' to get a root terminal (you can also set an alias su='sudo -i', for example, so you can 'su' just like you would in another distribution.

YODA EDIT: slower than james, I am

[benny_fletch]

I have found no real difference between sudo and su (as Mepis uses) in functionality or ability, except for the additional two characters and that sudo uses the user's password and su uses root's password. I agree eveyone that you can do everything you need to do in regards to modifying/administering your system with sudo and kdesudo, but then again I haven't logged into a root account for over five years (during the time I was using Mepis). The same ideas hold true for Mepis, but the syntax is slightly different, su for konsole/CLI commands and kdesu to open KDE GUI applications. With these two options (spelling depends on your OS choice), you can do anything without logging into root.

Although, I agree if you are used to one over the other it can take a while to retrain yourself.

[michel]

sudo -i made my day. Thanks to all!

Michel

[kubicle]

sudo -i made my day. Thanks to all!

Only slightly relevant:

I'm actually able to use 'su' on raring... which asks my user's password just as 'sudo -i' would...have there been 'recent' changes to the su executable in ubuntu/debian...or have I gone mad? (I know, it's a coin toss)

EDIT: Yes...I'm an idiot...I actually had an alias set (for user) but was looking at root's aliases :P

[james147]

Only slightly relevant:

I'm actually able to use 'su' on raring... which asks my user's password just as 'sudo -i' would...have there been 'recent' changes to the su executable in ubuntu/debian...or have I gone mad? (I know, it's a coin toss)

EDIT: Yes...I'm an idiot...I actually had an alias set (for user) but was looking at root's aliases :P

What does

ls -l $(which su)
alias su

say?

[kubicle]

As my edit said, I had an alias set for user, but was looking in as root:

$which su                                                                                                           
su: aliased to sudo -i

#which su                                                                                                           
/bin/su

(I'm using zsh...so 'which' picks up aliases as well)

[kubicle]

And as we've left the vicinity of the original topic, I just changed aliases (for good measure):
alias su='sudo su' #behaves like 'su'
alias si='sudo -i' #behaves like 'su -'

[james147]

(I'm using zsh...so 'which' picks up aliases as well)

Same here, had to run bash to see if it would for under it, but it didn't

alias su='sudo su' #behaves like 'su'

alias su='sudo -s' should be the same as this, without the need to call su

[kubicle]

Same here, had to run bash to see if it would for under it, but it didn't

That's the zsh 'which' built-in goodness

alias su='sudo -s' should be the same as this, without the need to call su

It's not:

$sudo su
#echo $HOME
/root

$sudo -s
#echo $HOME
/home/username

(I'm sure that hammer will hit a thumb sooner or later)

[james147]

Sorry,

sudo -sH

[kubicle]

Sorry,

sudo -sH

That would probably work (I decided to err on the side of caution because I've never taken a deeper look at possible other differences...a diff on 'env' output would probably suffice)

EDIT: tried it, $PATHs are different on my end, but I'll switch to sudo -sH anyway (seems to match sudo -i $PATH)

[jlittle]

Same here, had to run bash to see if it would for under it, but it didn't

"type" is the bashism. "which" in bash runs /usr/bin/which.

alias su='sudo su'
type su
su is aliased to `sudo su'

Regards, John Little

[kubicle]

"type" is the bashism.

I think 'type' is POSIX, so it should work on most shells.

[luckyone]

About the only difference I really see is that sudo uses a User's password instead of a separate root password. Otherwise I find them equal. So if you maintain your password securely there's no huhu. If you don't.....

[kubicle]

About the only difference I really see is that sudo uses a User's password instead of a separate root password. Otherwise I find them equal. So if you maintain your password securely there's no huhu. If you don't.....

sudo can also be configured to ask for a separate root password (if a separate password is preferred).