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I recently switched from Windows 8.1 to Ubuntu.

Yesterday, I wanted to install PHP but during tutorial I did this:

sudo chown -R joy /var/www

but now onward for every command it ask for password

$ sudo apt-get install vlc 
sudo: /var/lib/sudo owned by uid 1000, should be uid 0
[sudo] password for joy:

I tried to search on google about that & I come to know that I recursively granted ownership of the directory /var/www and all files and subdirectories, to user joy.

Now I want to reset everything back like before I recursively granted ownership.

Rmano
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Zarron
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  • /var/lib is not under /var/www; are you sure about the command you used? You probably did sudo chown -R joy /var /www --- notice the space between /var and /www (and the sudo). That could have royally destroyed your system. Nevertheless, the fact that the system is asking your password for installing a package is completely normal. – Rmano Oct 12 '14 at 15:00
  • This is very similar to http://askubuntu.com/questions/43621/what-if-i-accidently-run-command-chmod-r-on-system-directories-etc – Rmano Oct 12 '14 at 15:14
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    ...and after that, please read http://askubuntu.com/questions/20105/why-shouldnt-var-www-have-chmod-777 (I know you didn't do that, but it's the next step ;-) ... prevention!) – Rmano Oct 12 '14 at 15:20
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    Here's a list of files/directories in my system's /var, which aren't owned by root:root: http://paste.ubuntu.com/8546503/. You can use those as a reference (bro3886 is my username, so replace that with joy). – muru Oct 12 '14 at 15:22

1 Answers1

-1

Update:

Try this:
sudo chown -h root /var/lib/sudo

This will change the owner of /var/lib/sudo to root

devGeek
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    Most directory under /var are owned by root, yes, but there are important exceptions. Look at /var/spool/cron for example; cron will have difficult time to work without the access to them. The chown -R command is destructive, and it's impossible to go back short of a restore form backup or reinstall. – Rmano Oct 12 '14 at 15:05
  • Not all subdirectories and files in /var are owned by root though, so this is not an absolute fix. – douggro Oct 12 '14 at 15:05
  • I Agree. But, that won't harm the @user3146073 as in this case Ubuntu is not installed on a host machine. It's only a single user. And, he won't mind using sudo -i otherwise – devGeek Oct 12 '14 at 15:11
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    Even if it is only a single user system, there are system users like lightdm, cron, etc. which need to have directories owned by them. This suggestion is likely to severely harm this user's system. – muru Oct 12 '14 at 15:12
  • @douggro Okay, got it. May the update works. – devGeek Oct 12 '14 at 15:22
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    @yes that can solve the specific problem --- better like that. But it's still not a solution (btw, I didn´t downvote). – Rmano Oct 12 '14 at 15:33
  • @muru Yeah, the system is already "damaged" though and root owns most of the stuff in /var so it would be better than having it owned by another user... – douggro Oct 12 '14 at 17:12