Sudoer?

[JDawgZX11D]

Look, I just made the switch to Linux, Fedora 12 to be exact. I am trying to install a .deb program on my system. here is my command I am typing, exact..

sudo apt-get install limewirelinux.deb

it asks me for my password and I enter it. I get the response along the lines of, sudeor not in the list, a report has been generated. I then try this...

login root

it asks me for my password and I type it in(i know the password is correct!!), tells me password failed from the terminal. When I make administrative changes in the GUI, such as adding users.. it will ask me for my root password and it takes it in the gui. Any ideas of where I am going wrong? I saw a post earlier about how to add a user to the sudoer list, but it will not take the command. I REFUSE TO GO BACK TO WINDOWS!!! I like linux way better than windows, and I have only been using it for a few days now. Is there a way to install the .deb file from the gui? Every time I try to do something from the terminal, it never takes for me.

[bigtomrodney]

The apt-get tool is used for installing from repositories. If you want to install a package you need to use dpkg -i instead.

On top of that you shouldn't install deb files in Fedora as it is an rpm distribution. Either convert it to an rpm using alien or better find the appropriate rpm package for the app you want. Better still, Limewire is a Gnutella client but it's got to be one of the worst, try eMule or aMule from the Fedora repositories.

Lastly and more on topic - sudo! I believe that Fedora is configured so that sudo expects the root password rather than the user's password. Try that next time you need to use sudo...but please don't forget all of the other stuff!

[JDawgZX11D]

That is why I am here... Limewire was only my example, it is still a hang up. I am new to compiling code and installing.. I have been having trouble even getting my gdesklets to work. Does not mean I am giving up hope. how come i am getting the error message that the sudoer is wrong and a report was filed? THat is still my biggest mystery. I know I probably screwed up somewhere. I made my root psswd the same as my main user so I would not forget it. But it will not recognize my root psswd still. any thoughts on that?

[JDawgZX11D]

How would I go about changing my root password? SInce both passwords are the same, could I have a hang up there?

[reed9]

Fedora doesn't use sudo by default.

To log in as root type

su -

To run just a command as root do

su -c 'type command here'

To change the root password do

su -
passwd

dpkg and apt-get are both debian tools. Fedora uses rpm and yum.

[JDawgZX11D]

after some reading, i got myself added to the sudoers list. that helped out a lot. I could not install a lot of the packages with out that stupid error. I really appreciate your help, what ever keeps me away from winders..

[Transmogrifox]

I'm not familiar with Fedora, but if debian packaging tools are supported, it's not as a primary means for installing software. It would be akin to alien on debian based systems, which is able to handle rpm packages.

Fedora's repositories are quite extensive. For any Linux, first thing to do when you want to install software:
1) Search repositories for the software with your package manager. Install via package manager.
2) If the software you want is not available in the repositories, search for a 3rd party repository that maintains that package. Add that repository to your package management system and install through the package manager.
3) If the only way to get the package is by downloading, then look for package extensions that are built for your distribution (for example, don't download a .deb for Fedora, but look for a .rpm).
4) If a proper package is not available for your distribution, download source and compile the program.

A .deb package is configured for a Debian or Ubuntu (or deb based distro). There is no guarantee that a .deb built for Ubuntu will work on Debian, vice versa, let alone on Fedora. Each distribution maintains packages with a compatibility between versions of each dependency (usually libraries). Taking a package built for one distribution and trying to install on another will often cause it to break. The only time this is not true is when it's packaged in a similar manner to a Windows .exe, where all the dependencies are included in the package, and installed as needed. This makes a royal mess of the system, and then you need programs like CrapCleaner to maintain sanity.

GoogleEarth binary package is an example of a distribution independent package. They have made it self-contained enough that there is very little dependency on anything but the Linux kernel (common to all Linux distributions).

Might be more info than you wanted, but there you go. Sounds like you got sudo figured out.

If you need to get root, now that you are a sudo user, the preferred way is:
sudo su

Then type your sudo password.

At my office, we use a CentOS5 server. Red Hat, CentOS and Fedora are all in the same family. It seems the Red Hat way of dealing with sudo is that the sudoers file includes a group called "wheel" for sudoers. In /etc/sudoers:
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

This line would be uncommented. Then each user on your system who has sudo privelege is added to the group wheel using your users/group management tool. Those users enter their own user password for root privelege.

I hope that is helpful.

[JDawgZX11D]

The apt-get tool is used for installing from repositories. If you want to install a package you need to use dpkg -i instead.

On top of that you shouldn't install deb files in Fedora as it is an rpm distribution. Either convert it to an rpm using alien or better find the appropriate rpm package for the app you want. Better still, Limewire is a Gnutella client but it's got to be one of the worst, try eMule or aMule from the Fedora repositories.

Lastly and more on topic - sudo! I believe that Fedora is configured so that sudo expects the root password rather than the user's password. Try that next time you need to use sudo...but please don't forget all of the other stuff!

dpkg -i

every time I type that command, it tells me that the command is not found?

[JDawgZX11D]

I dont want to sound like a dork for asking multiple questions on one post and all. I am just getting broken in the hard way it looks like. Nothing I do is ever easy...

[bigtomrodney]

dpkg -i

every time I type that command, it tells me that the command is not found?

That's okay, that's to be expected. I apologise for the overload of information in my first post, it's probably best to break it down a bit:

• Don't use deb packages in Fedora
• Use your repositories to install applications
• Don't use sudo as it's not configured, use su - to log in as root first

You can use the tool "yum" from the command line or you should have a graphical package tool there somewhere. That should let you install software from the repositories which will save you chasing packages and dependencies. You'll have to forgive me for being a bit vague as I'm not a Fedora user.