fresh install remount and sudo broken

[jnl.000]

i just installed kubuntu 24.04 on an old windows laptop. ive reinstalled a number of times with the same issues every time. i dont know if the issue is one thing that is causing cascading issues, or a bunch of different things.

some of my issues:

1. any time i try to sudo anything i get this:

/etc/sudo.conf is world writable
/usr/bin.sudo must be owned by uid 0 and have the setuid bit set

those files do have 777 permissions, which i am unable to change, even when i go into recovery mode and use the root console. the owner is already root:root but the setuid bit is not set.

2. lots of programs wont open. for example driver manager wont open and pops up "su returned with an error". lots of programs like dolphin just close suddenly soon after opening. firefox wont open or do anything at all. the wifi was able to connect during install but now wont work at all. i was able to hardwire and do all software updates.

3. when im in recovery root console (and also other times ive seen it too) i get this error:

systemmd-remount-fs.service failed because the control process exited with an error code".

and then if i try doing a remount it gives me an error saying remount is not available. i think this is the reason i cant fix the sudo permissions issues. no changes i make in the root console stay.

4. when i try to install a lot of different software, it flashes a screen so fast i cant see it and then just stops. i recorded a video so i could read it. it says:

an application is attempting to preform an action that requires privileges. Authentication is required to preform this action. Incorrect permissions on /usr/lib/polkit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1 (needs to be setuid root). and then there is a password entry box.

but that screen goes away before i can even try to enter a password.


i have googled for days and tried everything i could possibly find but nothing is working. i cant even get past the blocking of using sudo because its set to 0777.

i know very little about linux. ive only used it a small amount at various times over the last 30 years. but i was a software engineer so tho i dont know a lot about linux, i am tech savvy.

anyone have any suggestions? is the globally accessible root the cause of all the problems? why would the install set it like that?! its the exact same problems every time i install and ive re done it like 4+ times. or is the not working remount the cause of all of it, or is it two separate issues?

i do have a second old laptop that i installed it on and it seems to work fine there, tho that laptop is so gibbled it just crashes randomly (not linux related, its just old and dying). and i cant really use that one because the boot record keeps getting messed up and preventing access to both the windows and linux drives.

[claydoh]

anyone have any suggestions? is the globally accessible root the cause of all the problems? why would the install set it like that?! its the exact same problems every time i install and ive re done it like 4+ times. or is the not working remount the cause of all of it, or is it two separate issues?

Have you verified the ISO image, or downloaded a fresh one? or even tried different tools to make the installer USB?
Sounds like a bad image or 'burn' to the USb stick, maybe a bad hard drive (corrupted files??)
or there is something at the system level you have modified after installing?

[jlittle]

those files do have 777 permissions, which i am unable to change.

That sounds like you've installed to a filesystem that doesn't do permissions in a Linux way, like exFat or NTFS. What filesystem is the install on?

[TinyTim]

I installed a Ubuntu 22.04 system once that behaved erratic, I had installed the system using legacy BIOS instead of UEFI. I followed steps from Dell to set the bios correctly for UEFI and reinstalled. *I also converted my drive from MBR to GPT at that time.

[jlittle]

That's good info, but doesn't tell us the type of partitions within the drive that's GPT. If you are able to, please run in a konsole

findmnt --real

Otherwise, please boot the USB, choose "Try Kubuntu", and in a konsole run

sudo blkid

and post the results here. My suspicion shouldn't be possible, but 777 is what you get with the Windows file systems.

[jnl.000]

Have you verified the ISO image, or downloaded a fresh one? or even tried different tools to make the installer USB?
Sounds like a bad image or 'burn' to the USb stick, maybe a bad hard drive (corrupted files??)
or there is something at the system level you have modified after installing?

i only downloaded the installer once, but i remade the usb install drive many times. i put in a different hard drive and still the same problem. ive installed on fresh partitions a ton of times..always the same issue in this laptop. i used the usb install drive on a different laptop and that worked fine but then the bios on that machine commited suicide shortly after (8+ years old). i have made zero changes to the system after installing. there is just something about the laptop that the installer doesnt like.

[jnl.000]

That sounds like you've installed to a filesystem that doesn't do permissions in a Linux way, like exFat or NTFS. What filesystem is the install on?

yeah i used ntfs but linux should have no problem using ntfs. and it worked fine on the other laptop on ntfs.

the only difference between the 2 laptops besides being different models, is one is mbr and the other is gpt. the gpt one is the one that fails.

[jnl.000]

I installed a Ubuntu 22.04 system once that behaved erratic, I had installed the system using legacy BIOS instead of UEFI. I followed steps from Dell to set the bios correctly for UEFI and reinstalled. *I also converted my drive from MBR to GPT at that time.

im havig the issue on a uefi gpt laptop and it worked fine on a mbr laptop. lol. the mbr laptop where it worked fine the bios committed suicide shortly after (likely unrelated, super old laptop).

[jnl.000]

That's good info, but doesn't tell us the type of partitions within the drive that's GPT. If you are able to, please run in a konsole

findmnt --real

Otherwise, please boot the USB, choose "Try Kubuntu", and in a konsole run

sudo blkid

and post the results here. My suspicion shouldn't be possible, but 777 is what you get with the Windows file systems.

yes i am using ntfs for the root and home partitions and fat 32 for the boot partition. i attached pics of the output

[jnl.000]

everything i had read said linux is fine with ntfs, and it worked with the other laptop that has since died. i used ntfs in case i ever wanted to access any files from windows. i could try using a more linux friendly file system and see if that works better on this laptop. or try ising a previous version of kubuntu instead of the latest.

[claydoh]

yes i am using ntfs for the root and home partitions

Yeah...nope, you will always end up have problems doing this eventually no matter if you use an older version of a distro or a current one.
If you need to share between Windows and Linux, create a separate NTFS partition for the purpose. It stinks that Windows does not support more file systems, but it is what it is.
(yes, there is a third party Windows 'driver' for ext4, but imnsho, it is at best not reliable.)

[TinyTim]

everything i had read said linux is fine with ntfs, and it worked with the other laptop that has since died. i used ntfs in case i ever wanted to access any files from windows. i could try using a more linux friendly file system and see if that works better on this laptop. or try ising a previous version of kubuntu instead of the latest.

I install Kubuntu onto a EXT4 formatted drive and use a separate drive formatted to NTFS for windows files. Linux can write and read to NTFS but can only operate on EXT or BTRFS, *or that is what I used to think. I did not even know that it was possible for a Linux Kubuntu operating system to work on a NTFS format, I'm actually shocked that your monitor even flickers.