Cannot sudo with Debian 10

Question

I have installed Debian 10 on Dell Inspiron with an AMD processor. I am using the KDE Plasma desktop. When I try

sudo dpkg  -i ./palemoon_28.6.1+repack-2_amd64.deb

I get

[sudo] password for peter: 
peter is not in the sudoers file.  This incident will be reported.

I logged in as root and entered

/usr/sbin/adduser peter

This returned

adduser: The user `peter' already exists.

I then tried the following as root

chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers

When I try to sudo, in the peter account, I still get

peter is not in the sudoers file.  This incident will be reported.

I then try the following as root

sudo usermod -aG sudo,adm peter

Still get the same reslt when I try to sudo from the peter account.

Opening a new terminal, for the peter account, does not change anything.

Edit

cat /etc/sudoers
root@debian:/home/peter/Downloads# cat /etc/sudoers
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# Please consider adding local content in /etc/sudoers.d/ instead of
# directly modifying this file.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#
Defaults        env_reset
Defaults        mail_badpass
Defaults        secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:    /usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"

# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

# Allow members of group sudo to execute any command
%sudo   ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

# See sudoers(5) for more information on "#include" directives:

#includedir /etc/sudoers.d


root@debian:/home/peter/Downloads# id peter
uid=1000(peter) gid=1000(peter)   groups=1000(peter),4(adm),24(cdrom),25(floppy),27(sudo),29(audio),30(dip),44(video),46(plugdev),109(netdev),112(bluetooth),116(lpadmin),117(scanner)

The problem is sudo use its own settings to decide whether a user can run a command. — 炸鱼薯条德里克, Aug 18 '19 at 23:36
Add the output of cat /etc/sudoers and id peter to your question. Also, /etc/sudoers already has 440 permissions so there's no need to run chmod on it. — Nasir Riley, Aug 18 '19 at 23:48
Thank you for your replies. I have edited my question to include the output of "cat /etc/sudoers" and "id peter" — OtagoHarbour, Aug 19 '19 at 00:29
Try newgrp sudo in that new window, then the sudo command. — Jeff Schaller, Aug 19 '19 at 00:55
I know you’ve already answered your own question, but did you log out and back into peter after adding that ID to the sudo group? Groups don’t take effect until that user logs in again. A full login, not just opening a new terminal. — Peschke, Aug 19 '19 at 07:46

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 19 '19 at 01:32

0

As root, I created a file

vi /etc/sudoers.d/peter

and added

peter    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

I can now sudo from the peter account.

answered Aug 19 '19 at 01:32

OtagoHarbour

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Cannot sudo with Debian 10

1 Answers1