new ubuntu install

[Bender]

it's pissing me off to no end...

I installed it on my wife's machine. during install, I gave myself a name and password. then after install my wife set up her name and password.

Now, she can't run synaptic package manager... it asks for administrative password. She types in her pw... doesn't work. I type in mine, doesn't work. So I log her out, and log in myself, then synaptic works fine (my pw works when it asks for admin password). What a ing hassle. Yeah, I know "linux is safer than windoze...". Still, a little usability would be nice.

So then I read about the getdeb method of installing sw. Under my wife's sign on, we went to getdeb.net and d/l songbird. When you double click the file after d/l, it asks for administrative permission AGAIN. Her pw doesn't work, mine doesn't work.

so I guess I have to log her out, then log in under my name... then how do I install the songbird package, which is in her area, not mine? It's a major ing hassle. I thought ubuntu was supposed for noobs... can they make it any ing harder to do a simple goddamn thing...?!

The distros I used to use (years ago), the package managers (apt, yum, rpm, urpmi, etc) worked fine.

questions:

I thought the root thing was disabled by default in ubuntu... so wtf is it asking us?

can I make my wife have permission to install stuff?

ok, that's that. Now on a side note, wife wants a program that works well with her ipod. will songbird do it? is there something better?

sorry for the rant, I'm sure most of this stuff is a user problem... ha ha...

Thanks in advance...

[baseline bum]

EDIT - I take it back.... she should be in the admin group i believe.

Assume your wife's in the groups foo and bar and her username is wife

You need to exectue

sudo usermod -G foo, bar, admin wife

to add her to the admin group. See man usermod for more options.

To find what groups your wife is in, execute

groups wife

Her main group will most likely be the same as her username, so put that one first in the usermod command.

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DISREGARD THE wheel PART:
Sounds like you need to add your wife to the wheel group. No one else can set-uid root with sudo.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[baseline bum]

One more edit... apparently

sudo usermod -aG admin wife should be enough, according to the manpage.

[Bender]

thanks bb, I'll check it out tomorrow. It's like I was saying back in the "distro recommendations" thread... I knew ubuntu was kinda different than what I was used to (redhat, mandriva, fedora).

[baseline bum]

ok, that's that. Now on a side note, wife wants a program that works well with her ipod. will songbird do it? is there something better?

sorry for the rant, I'm sure most of this stuff is a user problem... ha ha...

Thanks in advance...

For your last question, I use amarok to listen to the ipod on my computer, and gtkpod to put new songs on.

[baseline bum]

thanks bb, I'll check it out tomorrow. It's like I was saying back in the "distro recommendations" thread... I knew ubuntu was kinda different than what I was used to (redhat, mandriva, fedora).

Bender, make sure you do -aG instead of -Ga as the command-line switches. I just tested it out a second ago, using:

$  groups manu
manu adm dialout cdrom plugdev lpadmin admin sambashare

$ sudo groupadd foobar
$ sudo usermod -aG foobar manu
$ groups manu
manu adm dialout cdrom plugdev lpadmin admin sambashare foobar

So that command (sudo -aG admin wife) should be what you need.

[Pistons < Spurs]

sounds far too confusing and complicated for me to ever think of attempting to use it.....

[baseline bum]

sounds far too confusing and complicated for me to ever think of attempting to use it.....

I know... I was used to using the wheel group, not the admin, for sudoing to like in other UNIXes.

[Bender]

I started another ubuntu thread a while back about a sound problem on her new ubuntu install (low sound, and "choppy" sound). This was using the audio players that the distro comes with (rhythmbox and whatever). We couldn't get it sounding right.
Then we installed Real Player for linux, and it sounds perfect, loud and not choppy. Not sure wtf is going on with that, but, at least she's happy now.

after we get the software install thingie working easier, and then figure out how to work with her ipod, I think she'll be happy with her "new" old machine.

[Bender]

thanks, the sudo aG worked perfectly. now installing stuff is much easier, since when it asks for administrative privileges, it accepts her pw.

we are playing around with her ipod in ubuntu. we installed songbird (not bad), and it appears to work with, and sync your ipod, but we haven't got it figured out yet. We have the sync option set to "manual select", since she just wants to add certain songs at a time, not everything new. anyway, when we click on a song in her library (computer hard drive) and select "add to device", and then "ipod", the song does not get added to the ipod, but no messages or anything helpful happens in songbird.

will google and figure it out eventually (I don't own an ipod, and don't know crap about them).

thanks for the admin rights help.

[Bender]

ok, got the ipod thing figured out...