Annotation of src/usr.bin/sudo/TROUBLESHOOTING, Revision 1.1.1.1
1.1 millert 1: FAQ and troubleshooting tips for Sudo
2: =====================================
3:
4: Q) Sudo compiles but when I run it I get "Sorry, sudo must be setuid root."
5: and sudo quits.
6: A) Sudo must be setuid root to do its work. You need to do something like
7: `chmod 4111 /usr/local/bin/sudo'. Also, the filesystem sudo resides
8: on must *not* be mounted with the nosuid mount option or sudo will
9: not be able to work. Another possibility is you may have '.' in
10: your $PATH before the directory containing sudo. If you are going
11: to have '.' in your path you should make sure it is at the end.
12:
13: Q) Sudo is setup to log via syslog(3) but I'm not getting any log
14: messages.
15: A) Make sure you have an entry in your syslog.conf file to save
16: the sudo messages (see the sample.syslog.conf file). The default
17: log facility is local2 (changeable via configure). Don't forget
18: to send a SIGHUP to your syslogd so that it re-reads its conf file.
19: Also, remember that syslogd does *not* create log files, you need to
20: create the file before syslogd will log to it (ie: touch /var/log/sudo).
21: Note: the facility ("local2.debug") must be separated from the
22: destination ("/var/adm/sudo.log" or "@loghost") by
23: tabs, *not* spaces. This is a common error.
24:
25: Q) When sudo asks me for my password it never accepts what I enter even
26: though I know I entered my password correctly.
27: A) If your system uses shadow passwords, it is possible that sudo
28: didn't detect this. Take a look at the generated config.h file
29: and verify that the C function used for shadow password lookups
30: was detected. For instance, for SVR4-style shadow passwords,
31: HAVE_GETSPNAM should be defined (you can search for the string
32: "shadow passwords" in config.h with your editor). Note that
33: there is no define for 4.4BSD-based shadow passwords since that
34: just uses the standard getpw* routines.
35:
36: Q) I don't want the sudoers file in /etc, how can I specify where it
37: should go?
38: A) Use the --sysconfdir option to configure. Ie:
39: configure --sysconfdir=/dir/you/want/sudoers/in
40:
41: Q) Can I put the sudoers file in NIS/NIS+ or do I have to have a
42: copy on each machine?
43: A) There is no support for making an NIS/NIS+ map/table out of
44: the sudoers file at this time. A good way to distribute the
45: sudoers file is via rdist(1). It is also possible to NFS-mount
46: the sudoers file.
47:
48: Q) I don't run sendmail on my machine. Does this mean that I cannot
49: use sudo?
50: A) No, you just need to run use the --without-sendmail argument to configure
51: or add "!mailerpath" to the Defaults line in /etc/sudoers.
52:
53: Q) When I run visudo it uses vi as the editor and I hate vi. How
54: can I make it use another editor?
55: A) Your best bet is to run configure with the --with-env-editor switch.
56: This will make visudo use the editor specified by the user's
57: EDITOR environment variable. Alternately, you can run configure
58: with the --with-editor=/path/to/another/editor.
59:
60: Q) Sudo appears to be removing some variables from my environment, why?
61: A) Sudo removes the following "dangerous" environment variables
62: to guard against shared library spoofing, shell voodoo, and
63: kerberos server spoofing.
64: IFS
65: LOCALDOMAIN
66: RES_OPTIONS
67: HOSTALIASES
68: ENV
69: BASH_ENV
70: LD_*
71: _RLD_*
72: SHLIB_PATH (HP-UX only)
73: LIB_PATH (AIX only)
74: KRB_CONF (kerb4 only)
75: KRB5_CONFIG (kerb5 only)
76:
77: Q) How can I keep sudo from asking for a password?
78: A) To specify this on a per-user (and per-command) basis, use the 'NOPASSWD'
79: tag right before the command list in sudoers. See the sudoers man page
80: and sample.sudoers for details. To disable passwords completely,
81: run configure with the --without-passwd option or add "!authenticate"
82: to the Defaults line in /etc/sudoers. You can also turn off authentication
83: on a per-user or per-host basis using a user or host-specific Defaults
84: entry in sudoers.
85:
86: Q) When I run configure, it dies with the following error:
87: "no acceptable cc found in $PATH".
88: A) /usr/ucb/cc was the only C compiler that configure could find.
89: You need to tell configure the path to the "real" C compiler
90: via the --with-CC option. On Solaris, the path is probably
91: something like "/opt/SUNWspro/SC4.0/bin/cc". If you have gcc
92: that will also work.
93:
94: Q) When I run configure, it dies with the following error:
95: Fatal Error: config.cache exists from another platform!
96: Please remove it and re-run configure.
97: A) configure caches the results of its tests in a file called
98: config.cache to make re-running configure speedy. However,
99: if you are building sudo for a different platform the results
100: in config.cache will be wrong so you need to remove config.cache.
101: You can do this by "rm config.cache" or "make realclean".
102: Note that "make realclean" will also remove any object files
103: and configure temp files that are laying around as well.
104:
105: Q) I built sudo on a Solaris >= 2.6 machine but the resulting binary
106: doesn't work on Solaris <= 2.5.1. Why?
107: A) Starting with Solaris 2.6, snprintf(3) is included in the standard
108: C library. To build a version of sudo on a >= 2.6 machine that
109: will run on a <= 2.5.1 machine, edit config.h and comment out the lines:
110: #define HAVE_SNPRINTF 1
111: #define HAVE_VSNPRINTF 1
112: and run make.
113:
114: Q) When I run "visudo" it says "sudoers file busy, try again later."
115: and doesn't do anything.
116: A) Someone else is currently editing the sudoers file with visudo.
117:
118: Q) When I try to use "cd" with sudo it says "cd: command not found".
119: A) "cd" is a shell builtin, you can't run it as a command since
120: a child process (sudo) cannot affect the current working directory
121: of the parent (your shell).
122:
123: Q) When I try to use "cd" with sudo the command completes without
124: errors but nothing happens.
125: A) Some SVR4-derived OS's include a /usr/bin/cd command for reasons
126: unfathomable. A "cd" command is totally useless since a child process
127: cannot affect the current working directory of the parent (your shell).
128:
129: Q) How do you pronounce `sudo'?
130: A) soo-doo (for superuser do).
![[BACK]](/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Return to TROUBLESHOOTING CVS log ![[TXT]](/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/icons/dir.gif){kind=icon}
Up to [local] / src / usr.bin / sudo