Issues with su

[dutch-master]

Right, this is pretty annoying, Just succesfully installed a fresh Funtoo 1.4 (on some not-so-fresh hardware: Core2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 120GB SSD) and rebooted.

 

- bare metal, not a VM!

- logging in locally on the cli works (as root)

- remote login (ssh) as normal user works

- elevating permissions to root (su) fails

- I've had this on a different system (Devuan Beowulf) and the recommendation was to revert to the old Unix way: su -

- using su - fails with "permission denied" error, repeatedly

- alternative was to add

ALWAYS_SET_PATH yes

into /etc/default/su. I did so, no change in behaviour. Reboot, tried again, again, no change in behaviour, I still can't elevate permissions to root remotely.

 

Unless this can be solved, I'd have to revert this system to Devuan Ascii, 'cause I know it worked on that.

 

Suggestions? TIA!

[cardinal]

Log in as the regular user that can't su to root.

Type groups and hit Enter.

Post the output.

[dutch-master]

The output is only the group name of the regular user. I had performed the usermod command as per the wiki install page, but it bombed out with an error about plugdev group not existing. I'll redo the usermod command w/o the plugdev group tomorrow. In 4 hrs the alarm goes to get to work... ?

[cardinal]

A regular user must be a member of the wheel group to use su.

Click the link for instructions on adding the important groups.

Reference:

Create a Regular User

 

[dutch-master]

OK, performed the usermod command again, minus the plugdev group, tried again to log in remotely and now it works as it should. Thx for the pointers!