Annotation of src/usr.bin/sudo/TROUBLESHOOTING, Revision 1.5
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:
1.5 ! millert 20: Q) Sudo compiles but when I run it I get "seteuid(0) failed, your operating
! 21: system may have broken POSIX saved ID support\nTry running configure with
! 22: --disable-saved-ids" and sudo quits.
1.4 millert 23: A) The operating system you are running probably has broken support for
24: POSIX saved IDs. You should run configure with the "--disable-saved-ids"
25: option and rebuild sudo.
26:
1.2 millert 27: Q) Sudo never gives me a chance to enter a password using PAM, it just
28: says 'Sorry, try again.' three times and quits.
29: A) You didn't setup PAM to work with sudo. On Linux this generally
30: means installing sample.pam as /etc/pam.d/sudo.
31:
1.1 millert 32: Q) Sudo is setup to log via syslog(3) but I'm not getting any log
33: messages.
34: A) Make sure you have an entry in your syslog.conf file to save
35: the sudo messages (see the sample.syslog.conf file). The default
36: log facility is local2 (changeable via configure). Don't forget
37: to send a SIGHUP to your syslogd so that it re-reads its conf file.
38: Also, remember that syslogd does *not* create log files, you need to
39: create the file before syslogd will log to it (ie: touch /var/log/sudo).
40: Note: the facility ("local2.debug") must be separated from the
41: destination ("/var/adm/sudo.log" or "@loghost") by
42: tabs, *not* spaces. This is a common error.
43:
44: Q) When sudo asks me for my password it never accepts what I enter even
45: though I know I entered my password correctly.
46: A) If your system uses shadow passwords, it is possible that sudo
47: didn't detect this. Take a look at the generated config.h file
48: and verify that the C function used for shadow password lookups
49: was detected. For instance, for SVR4-style shadow passwords,
50: HAVE_GETSPNAM should be defined (you can search for the string
51: "shadow passwords" in config.h with your editor). Note that
52: there is no define for 4.4BSD-based shadow passwords since that
53: just uses the standard getpw* routines.
54:
55: Q) I don't want the sudoers file in /etc, how can I specify where it
56: should go?
57: A) Use the --sysconfdir option to configure. Ie:
58: configure --sysconfdir=/dir/you/want/sudoers/in
59:
60: Q) Can I put the sudoers file in NIS/NIS+ or do I have to have a
61: copy on each machine?
62: A) There is no support for making an NIS/NIS+ map/table out of
63: the sudoers file at this time. A good way to distribute the
64: sudoers file is via rdist(1). It is also possible to NFS-mount
65: the sudoers file.
66:
67: Q) I don't run sendmail on my machine. Does this mean that I cannot
68: use sudo?
69: A) No, you just need to run use the --without-sendmail argument to configure
70: or add "!mailerpath" to the Defaults line in /etc/sudoers.
71:
72: Q) When I run visudo it uses vi as the editor and I hate vi. How
73: can I make it use another editor?
74: A) Your best bet is to run configure with the --with-env-editor switch.
75: This will make visudo use the editor specified by the user's
76: EDITOR environment variable. Alternately, you can run configure
77: with the --with-editor=/path/to/another/editor.
78:
79: Q) Sudo appears to be removing some variables from my environment, why?
80: A) Sudo removes the following "dangerous" environment variables
81: to guard against shared library spoofing, shell voodoo, and
82: kerberos server spoofing.
83: IFS
84: LOCALDOMAIN
85: RES_OPTIONS
86: HOSTALIASES
1.3 millert 87: NLSPATH
88: PATH_LOCALE
89: TERMINFO
90: TERMINFO_DIRS
91: TERMPATH
92: TERMCAP
1.1 millert 93: ENV
94: BASH_ENV
1.3 millert 95: LC_ (if it contains a '/' or '%')
96: LANG (if it contains a '/' or '%')
97: LANGUAGE (if it contains a '/' or '%')
1.1 millert 98: LD_*
99: _RLD_*
100: SHLIB_PATH (HP-UX only)
1.3 millert 101: LIBPATH (AIX only)
1.1 millert 102: KRB_CONF (kerb4 only)
1.3 millert 103: KRBCONFDIR (kerb4 only)
104: KRBTKFILE (kerb4 only)
1.1 millert 105: KRB5_CONFIG (kerb5 only)
1.3 millert 106: VAR_ACE (SecurID only)
107: USR_ACE (SecurID only)
108: DLC_ACE (SecurID only)
1.1 millert 109:
110: Q) How can I keep sudo from asking for a password?
111: A) To specify this on a per-user (and per-command) basis, use the 'NOPASSWD'
112: tag right before the command list in sudoers. See the sudoers man page
113: and sample.sudoers for details. To disable passwords completely,
114: run configure with the --without-passwd option or add "!authenticate"
115: to the Defaults line in /etc/sudoers. You can also turn off authentication
116: on a per-user or per-host basis using a user or host-specific Defaults
117: entry in sudoers.
118:
119: Q) When I run configure, it dies with the following error:
120: "no acceptable cc found in $PATH".
121: A) /usr/ucb/cc was the only C compiler that configure could find.
122: You need to tell configure the path to the "real" C compiler
123: via the --with-CC option. On Solaris, the path is probably
124: something like "/opt/SUNWspro/SC4.0/bin/cc". If you have gcc
125: that will also work.
126:
127: Q) When I run configure, it dies with the following error:
128: Fatal Error: config.cache exists from another platform!
129: Please remove it and re-run configure.
130: A) configure caches the results of its tests in a file called
131: config.cache to make re-running configure speedy. However,
132: if you are building sudo for a different platform the results
133: in config.cache will be wrong so you need to remove config.cache.
134: You can do this by "rm config.cache" or "make realclean".
135: Note that "make realclean" will also remove any object files
136: and configure temp files that are laying around as well.
137:
138: Q) I built sudo on a Solaris >= 2.6 machine but the resulting binary
139: doesn't work on Solaris <= 2.5.1. Why?
140: A) Starting with Solaris 2.6, snprintf(3) is included in the standard
141: C library. To build a version of sudo on a >= 2.6 machine that
142: will run on a <= 2.5.1 machine, edit config.h and comment out the lines:
143: #define HAVE_SNPRINTF 1
144: #define HAVE_VSNPRINTF 1
145: and run make.
146:
147: Q) When I run "visudo" it says "sudoers file busy, try again later."
148: and doesn't do anything.
149: A) Someone else is currently editing the sudoers file with visudo.
150:
151: Q) When I try to use "cd" with sudo it says "cd: command not found".
152: A) "cd" is a shell builtin, you can't run it as a command since
153: a child process (sudo) cannot affect the current working directory
154: of the parent (your shell).
155:
156: Q) When I try to use "cd" with sudo the command completes without
157: errors but nothing happens.
158: A) Some SVR4-derived OS's include a /usr/bin/cd command for reasons
159: unfathomable. A "cd" command is totally useless since a child process
160: cannot affect the current working directory of the parent (your shell).
1.3 millert 161:
162: Q) When I run sudo it says I am not alllowed to run the command as root
163: but I don't want to run it as root, I want to run it as another user.
164: My sudoers file entry looks like:
165: bob ALL=(oracle) ALL
166: A) The default user sudo tries to run things as is always root, even if
167: the invoking user can only run commands as a single, specific user.
168: This may change in the future but at the present time you have to
169: work around this using the 'runas_default' option in sudoers.
170: For example:
171: Defaults:bob runas_default=oracle
172: would achieve the desired result ofr the preceding sudoers fragment.
1.1 millert 173:
174: Q) How do you pronounce `sudo'?
175: A) soo-doo (for superuser do).
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