Fresh Install with VmWare

Linux Beginners / Newbie
1

Hello All,
I am brand new to Ubuntu Desktop and Vmware.
Nonetheless, after a long day, managed to get them installed and functional.

The final step was to install Guest Additions from VMware.
I was able install, mount cd, decompress and navigate via terminal to the proper path.

When I try to do the Sudo command to install the Guest Additions, Sudo
asks for my password.

Everything I read says 1) I shouldn’t need to create a root anything
and 2) That the password is whatever my User Login Password is.

Except it won’t take it. I type it it and hit enter and it basically says “Try again”
and then I put it in twice more and it never will accept it.

Why on Earth, if Ubuntu does not need to do anything to use Sudo, does my password simply not work?

I created ONE user / One Password…all with the defaults.

If Sudo is so important, why can’t I enter my Password and install what I am trying to Install.

All over the Web it says “You don’t need root access to run Sudo…and you don’t need a special password…you use your user password.”

So, why doesn’t it work as it is purported to?

The workarounds of creating a root user or forcing root access are in direct contravention to the design by default which says it is not required to use Sudo!

Except it won’t take the password. I only have one. It isn’t hard. It is typed in properly, etc.

Ugghhhh…

16 hours first day Linux Battle…Started with VirtualBox…moved onto Vmware…several distro’s later and I’m almost out the Linux door forever.

Anyway…if someone has a simple explanation as to why Ubuntu Desktop 18.X.X will not allow me to enter the only password I’ve established when using Sudo, I would be thrilled,…and reinstall everything I deleted in frustration!

Thank you!

:wink:

MD

2

These are the instructions I am trying to follow:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1022525

I think the problem is, the User that is created by default is not an Administrator or have Root Priveledges???

But Ubuntu says that one doesn’t need Root Priveledges to run Sudo…

When you just install One User using the Defaults…what kind of user is it???

Doesn’t it have to be an Administrator or something? It is the only user…

So confused!

3

For anyone else…perhaps this is the answer:

How To Create a Sudo User on Ubuntu

I’m assuming that one would have to go to Step 3 and add the default created
account as a Sudo User??

It isn’t assigned by Default??

Truly maddening if this is how it works.

How on Earth is someone supposed to know this?

Reinstalling everything to try it.

4

Hi RoughDayHere,

Welcome to our forums.

While I came from the other way around, I know the frustration you feel now. I worked with other distros for some years when I had my fist call for help regarding an Ubuntu install. “No problem”, I said, “give me the root password”. “We don’t have one”, was the answer. “What…?”

Anyway, the idea behind the Ubuntu way is by default there isn’t an accessible root account, privileged commands can be executed via sudoer rules. This is for safety reasons, it is a bit harder to make large mistakes, and a bit harder to break the system from the outside.

In your case, you indeed need your own user’s password to run sudo commands. By default the installer adds the user you create to the sudoers file, thus allowing you to run commands in the name of root with sudo.

To verify that your user added correctly to sudoers, simply run:

$ sudo -l

In my case on a recent Ubuntu (with sandmann as the username), the output is the following (I am indeed sudoer):

   $ sudo -l
   Matching Defaults entries for sandmann on <machine's hostname>:
    env_reset, mail_badpass, secure_path=/usr/local/sbin\:/usr/local/bin\:/usr/sbin\:/usr/bin\:/sbin\:/bin\:/snap/bin

    User sandmann may run the following commands on <machine's hostname>:
    (ALL : ALL) ALL

The last two lines are what count: I can run all commands as root with sudo.

About the password, you can check that you indeed type the right password by typing it simply on the console, without any command, to see that every character is what you intend to write (then delete them back, and type again when sudo asks for the password).
I write this for a good reason. While we all think (me included) that we write the right password, there may be capslock on, some national character not interpreted as it should be, maybe a special character or even a white space in the way. For the many years I work with sudo on various environments, I had many cases like these. We pushed the right buttons, but the machine got something else.

5

I cant thank you enough for this forum and your advice…

What I’ve concluded is that VMware and Ubuntu bog this system down to the point of unusability and the gains/benefits to spending more time on this don’t really add up for me.

I was trying this all out out of curiosity/for fun and I don’t see that it is practical and useful for how I do things.

I still will try your solution (looks easy) to finish the loop, but I don’t see Linux fitting into my life on a VM (at least on this slower PC).

It makes the host not usable when the VM is running and this is after tweaking all the settings…Memory/CPU’s etc.

Too much hassle. Not much upside. My PC works fine.

Anyway -

A huge thank you!!!