How to Configure Sudoer in Ubuntu 12.04

  
  Currently on my system I'm running on Ubuntu 12.04  codename (Precise Pangolin) those who don't know about Ubuntu can find it out here . The reason why I'm using Ubuntu is because of its agility and flexibility to move things round. Most importantly it is open source.What it mean to be open source is that  you can use it as how you want it to be .You can do what ever with the source code plus with all the free software you can download on their Software centre. I love the idea of "sharing is caring" :-) .

   In this post, I'll be sharing on  the most important thing you need to do after finish installing Ubuntu  that is  adding the "sudoer" . what is "sudoer" you might ask. Well since Ubuntu is running on linux kernel, They have  a different bit of architecture as compared to Windows. Ubuntu is running on a monolithic kernel .In short it mean that the "operating system is working on kernel space running on super user mode". I'll not be going to explain it in detail this time perhaps if there is request some other time.

To cut the long story short, I give the analogy of Sudoer  in Linux as below :

   Imagine you own a big house.  You don't want anybody to do anything to your house without your permission.You have the absolute control of your place . You have 3 son  each of your son have different interest and need. Your first son like to play with music, the second one love to draw and the third one love to clean the house. Each of your son is good in what they do and they have different need in respect to their passion. The first son want to have guitar,organ,drum etc. while second son want to have chalk,crayon,paint brush etc . Every time they  need something or want to get approval to do some change in the house, they will ask you to do it for them.Well some might say "thats alright" but  just imagine they will do that forever and ever!!!!.

   The best thing to do as a father in my opinion  is that you give them their responsibility and let them manage what they do best . Isn't this a great idea?? That is how the sudoer work in Linux. In the example above the father,son and house each represent a component in Linux .

Father=Root(or known as administrator in window)
House=Ubuntu/Linux distro
Son=sudoer (S.U = Super User ;DO =do )

   In a nutshell,Sudoer is the one who have authority to change or do something in the system with the permission of Root. Root will be able to keep track on what is done by the sudoer. This help especially when there is something bad happen to your system and before it took you 2 days to know what is wrong with the system,you can check who are the one doing it. 
 
  There are advantages and disadvantages in running the sudoer but it helps and motivate you to explore more linux without afraid of jeopardizing the system. :-)

Steps to configure "sudoer"

1. Log in as root
2. Open termimal, run below command

$sudo adduser shark_attack(your sudo user)
$sudo /usr/sbin/visudo

//edit the sudo file as below using vi or other text editor
//(This is needed to grant the user as sudo privillage )

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

press CTRL-X and Y to exit vi //

To know whether your sudoer is rightly configured, try to login using normal user account and try to run any sudo command. For more information and guideline please visit this site

Let me know how it goes. Enjoy watching the video and have fun trying it out .

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