cannot sudo to update

[jjen009]

I have searched the forum and don't seem able to find this. I have just installed Kubuntu. No matter what I do, whenever I run any of the X-based update tools (adept, update-manager) using kdesudo it says that I'll have to run this as root. When I go to a shell and sudo apt-get it says the same. When I sudo -i to get into a shell as root, apt-get update starts, but then says the database is corrupt and tells me to force it. Try that, crash.

I have installed 5.10, was going to upgrade to 6.06. I could do that from a CD, but I just wonder what in the world is going on. I have never used a Linux with disabled root before. Maybe I don't understand the concept??

John Thayer Jensen
j.jensen@auckland.ac.nz

[claydoh]

Re: cannot sudo to update

the password you set up for your user is the sudo password, the first one if you set up more than one user on your machine. So try the password you use to login to your desktop as the sudo password.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RootSudo?hig...rootsudo%29has some more info on the subject of sudo

[Fenyx]

Re: cannot sudo to update

The correct command is "kdesu adept", but launching Adept from the K Menu should automatically ask you for your administrator password (see claydoh's post).

Btw, there's no update-manager in Kubuntu, AFAIK.

[jjen009]

Re: cannot sudo to update

Yes, I understand these things. I can sudo (and for X-things kdesu) everything. When I run Adept from the K Menu it does, indeed, ask for my password, and I give it. I have only created the one user on the machine. What I mean is that when I give it the password, it then comes back and tells me that I can only install packages, etc, as root, and I will have read-only access to look at packages. And that is exactly the situation. I am running sudo (for command-line stuff), and kdesu for KDE apps, and this works perfectly all right for things like editing config files. But adept doesn't seem to get the message, and neither do the other things that would allow me to update anything, install anything, remove anything.

[jjen009]

Re: cannot sudo to update

PS - I guess I should say that I have a fair bit of experience with Debian. I have a machine that I thought I would try Kubuntu on, as I like the KDE desktop. I can't update it by any means. Even going into a shell and doing sudo -i to give me a root shell doesn't help. Then I don't get the same messages from apt-get or dpkg, but they give me other error messages.

[claydoh]

Re: cannot sudo to update

sounds like something in apt is borked, which is beyond my knowledge. Perhaps pasting the full error messages from the console  will point us in the right direction.


btw there is an adept-updater

[jjen009]

Re: cannot sudo to update

"sounds like something in apt is borked, which is beyond my knowledge. Perhaps pasting the full error messages from the console will point us in the right direction.


btw there is an adept-updater"

Indeed. And adept-updater does the same. I will post the errors some time, but will look in the logs first. It is odd as I have only just installed it and it went without trouble. I then downloaded 6.06-alternate version and tried to update from CD - same issues. I could try to find out what is wrong but as there is nothing on there, I may just download 6.06-desktop and start from scratch.