su password; auth failed

[jevmaster5]

Alright, so i have been running Ubuntu for about 3 days now, finally getting all my files moved back to the drive and what have you.I came from running windows, and an Android phone with full su access, and done up all custom-like....
I am loving the speed, etc. great experience so far. BUT: the headphone port on my laptop is broken, and so I run [ran] and external soundcard, a Creative X-fi 5.1 USB SC. I have found linux drivers for this unit, and am trying to install. I have googled the crap out of how to do this, yet am getting stuck.

Here is where I'm getting stuck. I have extracted the package, entered into the sub folder, and am trying to run the Make install:

...laptop:/tmp/xfi-0.0.0.0$ cd ./xfi
...laptop:/tmp/xfi-0.0.0.0/xfi$ su -c "make install"
Password:
su: Authentication failure
...laptop:/tmp/xfi-0.0.0.0/xfi$



what in heck do i type at password... have I NOT done something, am I doing something wrong.... it does not accept my normal password, so I am lost.


*help?*

Sorry for the ellipsis, as this is my first post, apparently I'm not allow to post actual code there, as it is read as a link....

[Cabhan]

Welcome to the forums! Sorry to hear about your difficulties.

Ubuntu, by default, does not use su. Instead, it uses sudo. Using sudo is relatively simple:

sudo <command>

You will be prompted for your password: this is your user's password, not a root password. Any command run with sudo runs as though it was root.

There are many arguments about whether su or sudo is better, but sudo's main strengths are that you only need a single password, and it times out, so you can't have a persistent root session in a terminal if, for instance, you forget to set your screensaver and someone gets access to your computer.

If you want to setup su on Ubuntu, it is easy though. Just run:

sudo passwd

to set a root password, and then use that password for su.

I hope this helps!

[jevmaster5]

alright, that does answer a few questions, and got that resolved... but now I am lost..... I no longer know how to get this going.... ugh... I hate being a noob! so, what would be the code for make file, seeing as how "su -c "make install"" is no longer valid


or am i just missing something.... i AM new to this type of coding, so pardon my.....ignorance

[devils casper]

Replace su -c with sudo. It will be

sudo make install

I would suggest you to check this sticky.