[X-Newbies] Re: Sudo wont accept my Admin password?

Charles Martin chasm at mac.com
Thu May 10 08:59:44 PDT 2007


>From: Aldo Johnson <deetya at cbn.net.id>
>
>Weird, since I can use my Admin pasword to log on to my Admin 
>account. (Just the normal Admin account, not a super user account.)
>
>Yet when I try to use sudo, or othe apps that depend on its PW, like 
>ShowVolumeFragmentation.app, it always rejects my password. Why?
>
>Can anyone help? Please?

I'm guessing here, but it sounds like a classic case of "I changed my user shortname."

For the benefit of others, even if this is NOT the culprit, I'll explain.

In your user folder is a Home folder with your name on it. This name would be whatever you or the person who set up your machine named it. Usually it's just your first name.

YOU MUST ***NEVER*** CHANGE THE NAME OF THIS FOLDER!!!!

There is a complicated UNIX-y procedure to change the name of this folder that you REALLY don't want to learn, and even the much-simpler Applescript someone came up with relies heavily on you being comfortable issuing potentially disasterous commands in the Terminal. Get a professional to change the short username if you really, REALLY must do so at all.

I'm told the next version of OS X (Leopard) will address this glaring problem, but as a Mac tech I can tell you it's a NIGHTMARE to recover from this sort of boneheaded move because the user doesn't immediately notice a problem until later when the two sets of permissions start to collide. And no, you can't just "change the name back" and everything will be fine. In fact, that makes things worse. To call it a "permissions nightmare" is just the start.

Aldo, I sincerely hope that I'm wrong and that that is NOT what you (or someone who has access to your machine) did. But it sure sounds familiar.

Cheers
Chas


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