Hi,

I'm new to linux and have got into it through Mythbuntu. I'm trying to get the p.c. to power up with the APCI. I need to give mythbuntu the permissions to do this which I am doing through editing the sudoers file with a script that I am copy and pasting in as the instructions show (All of my experience with linux so far is copy and paste).
So in the Terminal I paste sudo visudo I am asked for my password which I give and then the sudoers file appears in the window. I paste the script i 1f40 n at the bottom.
At the very bottom of the window is You didn’t run visudo as root. I understand that there should be an option to save or quit.
I take it I'm not running visudo as root how on earth do I?

Thanks in advance
Andrew

All sorted, file edited.

I have zero computing experience apart from moving files around on a windows machine, just the usual stuff. I'm going thr 1f40 ough periods of frustration so when I manage to complete a task such as editing sudoers file (it's taken me about 3 hours) i'm overjoyed. Thanks Again.

Andrew

Just to state the bleeding obvious:

OP: To add a line at the end, go to the last character of the last line using the arrow keys, then press a (append mode).

Then press Enter and you should have a new line to type into.

When done, press escape (to exit append mode), colon. wq (write quit) as others have explained (or q! if it is messed up).

Pa100ka

an important one I forgot to mention, :q! quits without saving (if you made a mistake and don't know what the heck happened)

thanks again,
I'll check it out.

a few commands in vi,

'i' insert mode
'o' create new line, puts you in insert mode
'a' pretty much the same as i but you the cursor moves one character forward
'dd'(when in command mode) deletes the entire line
'/'(when in command mode) searches the document for the text you enter after '/'
there's alot more if you google vi you should get a good howto for using vi

if you ran sudo visudo then you ran it as root, actually in vi there's no option to save/quit, what you want to do is press esc to get out of insert mode, then hit :wq or alternativly hit esc and type ZZ, those both save and quit

Thanks for the reply,
How do I move down to create a new line. The last line is %admin ALL=(ALL) ALLI need to add another line beginning with %myth ALL = etc. But the cursor won't move down when I get to the end or when I press enter.

Cheers
Andrew

.

You can edit the /etc/sudoers file with nano, too. Just open it with sudo:
Nano is much easier to use. However, it's not recommended to use that when editing the sudoers file. I don't know why.

And yes I did notice that you already managed to edit that.

I've successfully edited my sudoers file with nano and it's working fine. But when I try to open that with gedit, it stays as read-only.

And of course, learning to use vi(m) would be very nice, but I've used linux only about 3 years now, so it's not yet my time to do that.

Actually you can't use that to edit the sudoers file (at least I tried once and it said 'no', and visudo does syntax checking after your done to make sure you didn't f*** up your sudoers file and have no way to change after your done.

Nor me. But the sudoers file says it MUST be edited with visudo. So I just follow the instructions.

Doesn't hurt to become sufficiently proficient with vi, though, IMHO. If one visits a client *nix site it is the one editor which is always available.

Pa100ka

Actually you can't use that to edit the sudoers file (at least I tried once and it said 'no', and visudo does syntax checking after your done to make sure you didn't f*** up your sudoers file and have no way to change after your done.

Nor me. But the sudoers file says it MUST be edited with visudo. So I just follow the instructions.

Doesn't hurt to become sufficiently proficient with vi, though, IMHO. If one visits a client *nix site it is the one editor which is always available.

Pa100ka

I've successfully edited my sudoers file with nano and it's working fine. But when I try to open that with gedit, it stays as read-only.

And of course, learning to use vi(m) would be very nice, but I've used linux only about 3 years now, so it's not yet my time to do that.

Actually you can't use that to edit the sudoers file (at least I tried once and it said 'no', and visudo does syntax checking after your done to make sure you didn't f*** up your sudoers file and have no way to change after your done.

Nor me. But the sudoers file says it MUST be edited with visudo. So I just follow the instructions.

Doesn't hurt to become sufficiently proficient with vi, though, IMHO. If one visits a client *nix site it is the one editor which is always available.

Pa100ka

I've successfully edited my sudoers file with nano and it's working fine. But when I try to open that with gedit, it stays as read-only.

And of course, learning to use vi(m) would be very nice, but I've used linux only about 3 years now, so it's not yet my time to do that.