sudo is not installed, both sudo and su are not working

Question

When trying to switch to root using sudo su :

Error- sudo is not installed

When trying to switch with su command:

Error- this program is not installed

$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="16.04.3 LTS (Xenial Xerus)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS"
VERSION_ID="16.04"
HOME_URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
VERSION_CODENAME=xenial
UBUNTU_CODENAME=xenial

Results of /usr/bin/sudo :

 /usr/bin/sudo bash: /usr/bin/sudo: No such file or directory

please [edit] your question with the output of cat /etc/os-release — Yaron, Jan 22 '19 at 15:32
Can you open a terminal and enter /usr/bin/sudo and report what it says? — Charles Green, Jan 22 '19 at 15:38
user@user-HP-Pro-3330-MT:/$ /usr/bin/sudo bash: /usr/bin/sudo: No such file or directory — Debashis Priyadarshi, Jan 22 '19 at 15:39
Either you're on a VPS that doesn't provide root access (except possibly through a management console) or you're removed the sudo package - in which case see Can sudo be reinstalled after being removed? — steeldriver, Jan 22 '19 at 15:40
@DebashisPriyadarshi tell us if your server runs on your own physical server or if it is virtual .. and where it is hosted if virtual. — Soren A, Jan 22 '19 at 15:48
What's the output of /bin/su? If su is missing, I'd say the install is probably hosed in other respects as well... If su is available, it's basically a duplicate of this, and you can install sudo after setting root password. — vidarlo, Jan 22 '19 at 16:55
In short, as @steeldriver wrote, try: pkexec apt-get install sudo — Boba Fit, Jan 22 '19 at 22:43

karel · Answer 1 · 2019-01-25T07:14:51.750

2

In all currently supported versions of Ubuntu open the terminal and type:

pkexec apt install sudo

You can also test the above command by simulating it without installing anything:

pkexec apt install --simulate sudo

edited Jan 25 '19 at 07:14

answered Jan 25 '19 at 07:05

karel

114,770

sudo is not installed, both sudo and su are not working

1 Answers1