[eskimokisz]

Hey,

So I just installed Ubuntu alongside XP. Boot up, sign in, everything seems fine. However, when I try to access anything that needs admistrative capabilities (installing software packages, updating, etc.), the "Enter password" dialog appears. I type in my password, and the dialog briefly disappears or reappears. Occasionally it just disappears entirely, but isn't replaced by anything else. What's going on here?

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You need to use the root password, not yours. You should have been asked to set the root password when you did the install.

To test to see if you know what the root password is, you can use the command "su" from the command prompt and then you will be asked for the password. Since it is a window, you will see the result.

[Kemasa]

You need to use the root password, not yours. You should have been asked to set the root password when you did the install.

To test to see if you know what the root password is, you can use the command "su" from the command prompt and then you will be asked for the password. Since it is a window, you will see the result.

[eskimokisz]

Yeah, I looked into this. Turns out Ubuntu doesn't set up a root account; it uses sudo for everything. I set up the root account, but it's still giving me the same thing.

[Kemasa]

Hmmm, I would be very suprised if there is not a root account since that is what most of the processes use. Look in the file /etc/passwd and look at the first entry and/or for the account "root". It should be there.

Often it is best to use sudo, but it does not remove the need for the root account.

You can sudo into a root shell and change the root password "passwd root".

[eskimokisz]

OK. Let me rephrase. The root acct was always set up, but w/ a null pw. Or something like that; I'm not sure of the nuts and bolts. The point is, I should have been able to access administrative stuff w/ my user pw. I reset the root pw to something other than null, but neither pw works.

[Kemasa]

Your account is not a root account, I assume, therefore you do not have admin privs.

Have you tried to use the "su" command to get into the root account? Did it work?

It may be that the command is looking for the password to another account. You need to check to see which that is and what the password is. I don't use Ubuntu, so I can't give you the details on that. Normally it uses the root account.

Also, you said you created another root account, make sure that is not causing a problem.