Annotation of src/usr.bin/sudo/TROUBLESHOOTING, Revision 1.3
1.3 ! millert 1: Troubleshooting tips and FAQ for Sudo
1.1 millert 2: =====================================
3:
1.3 ! millert 4: Q) When I run configure, it says "C compiler cannot create executables".
! 5: A) This usually means you either don't have a working compiler. This
! 6: could be due to the lack of a license or that some component of the
! 7: compiler suite could not be found. Check config.log for clues as
! 8: to why this is happening. On many systems, compiler components live
! 9: in /usr/ccs/bin which may not be in your PATH environment variable.
! 10:
1.1 millert 11: Q) Sudo compiles but when I run it I get "Sorry, sudo must be setuid root."
12: and sudo quits.
13: A) Sudo must be setuid root to do its work. You need to do something like
14: `chmod 4111 /usr/local/bin/sudo'. Also, the filesystem sudo resides
15: on must *not* be mounted with the nosuid mount option or sudo will
16: not be able to work. Another possibility is you may have '.' in
17: your $PATH before the directory containing sudo. If you are going
18: to have '.' in your path you should make sure it is at the end.
19:
1.2 millert 20: Q) Sudo never gives me a chance to enter a password using PAM, it just
21: says 'Sorry, try again.' three times and quits.
22: A) You didn't setup PAM to work with sudo. On Linux this generally
23: means installing sample.pam as /etc/pam.d/sudo.
24:
1.1 millert 25: Q) Sudo is setup to log via syslog(3) but I'm not getting any log
26: messages.
27: A) Make sure you have an entry in your syslog.conf file to save
28: the sudo messages (see the sample.syslog.conf file). The default
29: log facility is local2 (changeable via configure). Don't forget
30: to send a SIGHUP to your syslogd so that it re-reads its conf file.
31: Also, remember that syslogd does *not* create log files, you need to
32: create the file before syslogd will log to it (ie: touch /var/log/sudo).
33: Note: the facility ("local2.debug") must be separated from the
34: destination ("/var/adm/sudo.log" or "@loghost") by
35: tabs, *not* spaces. This is a common error.
36:
37: Q) When sudo asks me for my password it never accepts what I enter even
38: though I know I entered my password correctly.
39: A) If your system uses shadow passwords, it is possible that sudo
40: didn't detect this. Take a look at the generated config.h file
41: and verify that the C function used for shadow password lookups
42: was detected. For instance, for SVR4-style shadow passwords,
43: HAVE_GETSPNAM should be defined (you can search for the string
44: "shadow passwords" in config.h with your editor). Note that
45: there is no define for 4.4BSD-based shadow passwords since that
46: just uses the standard getpw* routines.
47:
48: Q) I don't want the sudoers file in /etc, how can I specify where it
49: should go?
50: A) Use the --sysconfdir option to configure. Ie:
51: configure --sysconfdir=/dir/you/want/sudoers/in
52:
53: Q) Can I put the sudoers file in NIS/NIS+ or do I have to have a
54: copy on each machine?
55: A) There is no support for making an NIS/NIS+ map/table out of
56: the sudoers file at this time. A good way to distribute the
57: sudoers file is via rdist(1). It is also possible to NFS-mount
58: the sudoers file.
59:
60: Q) I don't run sendmail on my machine. Does this mean that I cannot
61: use sudo?
62: A) No, you just need to run use the --without-sendmail argument to configure
63: or add "!mailerpath" to the Defaults line in /etc/sudoers.
64:
65: Q) When I run visudo it uses vi as the editor and I hate vi. How
66: can I make it use another editor?
67: A) Your best bet is to run configure with the --with-env-editor switch.
68: This will make visudo use the editor specified by the user's
69: EDITOR environment variable. Alternately, you can run configure
70: with the --with-editor=/path/to/another/editor.
71:
72: Q) Sudo appears to be removing some variables from my environment, why?
73: A) Sudo removes the following "dangerous" environment variables
74: to guard against shared library spoofing, shell voodoo, and
75: kerberos server spoofing.
76: IFS
77: LOCALDOMAIN
78: RES_OPTIONS
79: HOSTALIASES
1.3 ! millert 80: NLSPATH
! 81: PATH_LOCALE
! 82: TERMINFO
! 83: TERMINFO_DIRS
! 84: TERMPATH
! 85: TERMCAP
1.1 millert 86: ENV
87: BASH_ENV
1.3 ! millert 88: LC_ (if it contains a '/' or '%')
! 89: LANG (if it contains a '/' or '%')
! 90: LANGUAGE (if it contains a '/' or '%')
1.1 millert 91: LD_*
92: _RLD_*
93: SHLIB_PATH (HP-UX only)
1.3 ! millert 94: LIBPATH (AIX only)
1.1 millert 95: KRB_CONF (kerb4 only)
1.3 ! millert 96: KRBCONFDIR (kerb4 only)
! 97: KRBTKFILE (kerb4 only)
1.1 millert 98: KRB5_CONFIG (kerb5 only)
1.3 ! millert 99: VAR_ACE (SecurID only)
! 100: USR_ACE (SecurID only)
! 101: DLC_ACE (SecurID only)
1.1 millert 102:
103: Q) How can I keep sudo from asking for a password?
104: A) To specify this on a per-user (and per-command) basis, use the 'NOPASSWD'
105: tag right before the command list in sudoers. See the sudoers man page
106: and sample.sudoers for details. To disable passwords completely,
107: run configure with the --without-passwd option or add "!authenticate"
108: to the Defaults line in /etc/sudoers. You can also turn off authentication
109: on a per-user or per-host basis using a user or host-specific Defaults
110: entry in sudoers.
111:
112: Q) When I run configure, it dies with the following error:
113: "no acceptable cc found in $PATH".
114: A) /usr/ucb/cc was the only C compiler that configure could find.
115: You need to tell configure the path to the "real" C compiler
116: via the --with-CC option. On Solaris, the path is probably
117: something like "/opt/SUNWspro/SC4.0/bin/cc". If you have gcc
118: that will also work.
119:
120: Q) When I run configure, it dies with the following error:
121: Fatal Error: config.cache exists from another platform!
122: Please remove it and re-run configure.
123: A) configure caches the results of its tests in a file called
124: config.cache to make re-running configure speedy. However,
125: if you are building sudo for a different platform the results
126: in config.cache will be wrong so you need to remove config.cache.
127: You can do this by "rm config.cache" or "make realclean".
128: Note that "make realclean" will also remove any object files
129: and configure temp files that are laying around as well.
130:
131: Q) I built sudo on a Solaris >= 2.6 machine but the resulting binary
132: doesn't work on Solaris <= 2.5.1. Why?
133: A) Starting with Solaris 2.6, snprintf(3) is included in the standard
134: C library. To build a version of sudo on a >= 2.6 machine that
135: will run on a <= 2.5.1 machine, edit config.h and comment out the lines:
136: #define HAVE_SNPRINTF 1
137: #define HAVE_VSNPRINTF 1
138: and run make.
139:
140: Q) When I run "visudo" it says "sudoers file busy, try again later."
141: and doesn't do anything.
142: A) Someone else is currently editing the sudoers file with visudo.
143:
144: Q) When I try to use "cd" with sudo it says "cd: command not found".
145: A) "cd" is a shell builtin, you can't run it as a command since
146: a child process (sudo) cannot affect the current working directory
147: of the parent (your shell).
148:
149: Q) When I try to use "cd" with sudo the command completes without
150: errors but nothing happens.
151: A) Some SVR4-derived OS's include a /usr/bin/cd command for reasons
152: unfathomable. A "cd" command is totally useless since a child process
153: cannot affect the current working directory of the parent (your shell).
1.3 ! millert 154:
! 155: Q) When I run sudo it says I am not alllowed to run the command as root
! 156: but I don't want to run it as root, I want to run it as another user.
! 157: My sudoers file entry looks like:
! 158: bob ALL=(oracle) ALL
! 159: A) The default user sudo tries to run things as is always root, even if
! 160: the invoking user can only run commands as a single, specific user.
! 161: This may change in the future but at the present time you have to
! 162: work around this using the 'runas_default' option in sudoers.
! 163: For example:
! 164: Defaults:bob runas_default=oracle
! 165: would achieve the desired result ofr the preceding sudoers fragment.
1.1 millert 166:
167: Q) How do you pronounce `sudo'?
168: A) soo-doo (for superuser do).