Cannot "sudo".

[Bili Joe Campbell]

After upgrading from 7.10 to 8.04, I cannot access Synaptic from the menu, and I cannot execute any "sudo" anything from a terminal window. I get the message "sudo: unable to resolve host Casi". Casi is, and has always been this computer's name. I had to log in as root, in order to change my /boot/grub/menu.lst file, so I could see the messages generated at boot-up. They went by too fast to read, but one that mentioned starting some service had a big red "[FAILED]" following it. This is ugly; this is the fourth, major, show stopping bug I have encountered in the hour since I did the upgrade. I'll wait till tomorrow, (and use my Windows machine (ugh)) to scan the forums, and check for updates and fixes, but if it doesn't look very rosy tomorrow morning, I'm going to roll back to the backuped version of 7.10, which was running flawlessly, before the upgrade. Please fix these problems SOON, or I'm going to end up with egg on my face, in front of my friends who are [still] staunch supporters of Windows. I don't want to have to admit to them that I wasted a day and a half upgrading, and then rolling back a Linux installation.

[Jeroen Tietema (jtietema)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately we can't fix it, because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" [WWW] http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.

We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at [WWW] http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures

At a minimum, we need:
1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem,
2. the behavior you expected, and
3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
Thanks!

[Bili Joe Campbell (bilijoe)]

Relevant information: The following occurred immediately after upgrading my Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 8.04, both Desktop-i386 versions. I am running a DELL Optiplex GX270, with a 2.8 GHz Dual core Pentium-4, 3/4 of a Gig of RAM, and a 40Gb hard disk. The system had been performing flawlessly, ever since I replaced Windows XP with Ubuntu 7.10, six months or so ago.

Item A: 1) I went to the menu, System/Administration, and clicked on "Synaptic Package Manager". 2) I expected the result I have always gotten, which is, a brief pause, followed by the Synaptic Package Manager window opening. 3) The result I got... the cursor changed to the little whirly thing for a second or two, then returned to its normal appearance. The window did not open. Repeated tries resulted in the same scenario. Therefore, no access to Synaptic through the menu.

Item B: 1) I entered the following at the prompt in a terminal window:
    CODE:
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) I expected, as has always happened in the past, to be asked for my password and, after supplying it, for a "gedit" window to open on the /boot/grub/menu.lst file.
3) What I got instead was the following:
    QUOTE:
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    bili@Casi:~$ sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
    sudo: unable to resolve host Casi
    bili@Casi:~$ _
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope this helps. I have ADD and tend to be a bit wordy. Sorry.

[Bili Joe Campbell (bilijoe)]

I added the information you requested to the bug report. Hope it helps.

Bili
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Jeroen Tietema <email address hidden>
> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
> Ubuntu better. Unfortunately we can't fix it, because your description
> didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How
> to report bugs effectively" [WWW]
> http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful
> if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.
>
> We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at [WWW]
> http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures
>
> At a minimum, we need:
> 1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the
> problem,
> 2. the behavior you expected, and
> 3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
> Thanks!
>
> ** Changed in: ubuntu
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> Cannot "sudo".
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/223515
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.

[trollord (trollenlord)]

Just check that your /etc/hosts looks like
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 Casi
and your /etc/hostname looks like
Casi

and you should be aok.

[Bili Joe Campbell (bilijoe)]

Thanks! As soon as I can get back on the machine, I'll try that. Right now, I get dumped to a shell, in the middle of the boot process, because the system can't make contact with the root filesystem. The error message shows the correct UUID for the drive, but then says it doesn't exist. I think I may have to resort to the old Windows (yechk) method of Blast'n'Build here, and just start over. But I do appreciate your advice and, if I get back on before I resort to BnB, I'll check out the hosts file--or if I have similar trouble after a rebuild.

Thanks again for your time,
Bili Joe
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: trollord <email address hidden>
> Just check that your /etc/hosts looks like
> 127.0.0.1 localhost
> 127.0.1.1 Casi
> and your /etc/hostname looks like
> Casi
>
> and you should be aok.
>
>
> ** Changed in: upgrade-system (Ubuntu)
> Sourcepackagename: None => upgrade-system
>
> --
> Cannot "sudo".
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/223515
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

Please attach te files in /var/log/dist-upgrade to this bugreport. I would like to see if the upgrade did anything unusal that broke sudo. You mention later that booting is a problem too? Does it help if you use the old kernel (the one that was used in gutsy and should still be available)?

Thanks Michael

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Sounds like the ever-infamous bug 32906? Can you please check your /etc/hosts?