Terminal not accepting password

Recently, I tried to run routine maintenance using the sudo command and
Terminal is not accepting my admin password. This has not happened
before. Not having any trouble with login - just when using Terminal.
Any ideas?

In article <49fac02c$0$90270$>,
John Matthew <> wrote:

> Recently, I tried to run routine maintenance using the sudo command and
> Terminal is not accepting my admin password. This has not happened
> before. Not having any trouble with login - just when using Terminal.
> Any ideas?

Perhaps the account from which you're attempting to use sudo does not
have administrative privileges? Another possibility is that the file
'/etc/sudoers' has gone missing or is corrupt.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

John Matthew <> writes:

> Recently, I tried to run routine maintenance using the sudo command and
> Terminal is not accepting my admin password. This has not happened
> before. Not having any trouble with login - just when using Terminal.
> Any ideas?

"sudo" does not ask for the admin password but for the password of the
user you're logged in as.

Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In article <>, Jochem Huhmann <>
wrote:

> John Matthew <> writes:
>
> > Recently, I tried to run routine maintenance using the sudo command and
> > Terminal is not accepting my admin password. This has not happened
> > before. Not having any trouble with login - just when using Terminal.
> > Any ideas?
>
> "sudo" does not ask for the admin password but for the password of the
> user you're logged in as.
>

Which must be an administrator or a userID known to sudoers. If that's
not the case, you can 'su' to such a user, supplying the password for
the *switched-to* account, and then issue the 'sudo whatever' command.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

In article <49fac02c$0$90270$>,
John Matthew <> wrote:

> Recently, I tried to run routine maintenance using the sudo command and
> Terminal is not accepting my admin password. This has not happened
> before. Not having any trouble with login - just when using Terminal.
> Any ideas?

Check the following:

Caps Lock Key

That the account in question has admin privileges (actually check it in
System Preferences / Accounts)

and if you can, look at the /etc/sudoers file. It needs admin access so
it might be a bit of a trick to see. It should include the following
lines:
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

Try doing a "login user" command with the account in question. This
will differentiate whether it's a password problem with that account or
an issue with sudo access.

--
Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA Macintosh / Internet Consulting

"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"

John Matthew <> wrote:
> Recently, I tried to run routine maintenance using the sudo command and
> Terminal is not accepting my admin password. This has not happened
> before. Not having any trouble with login - just when using Terminal.
> Any ideas?

Check the keyboard layout for Terminal - maybe it's set to a layout that
is remapping one of the characters in your password. Oh, and the admin
account *does* have a password, right? As in, not blank?

--
K.

Lang may your lum reek.

In article <%u0Ml.25743$Db2.8679@edtnps83>,
(Király) wrote:

> John Matthew <> wrote:
> > Recently, I tried to run routine maintenance using the sudo command and
> > Terminal is not accepting my admin password. This has not happened
> > before. Not having any trouble with login - just when using Terminal.
> > Any ideas?
>
> Check the keyboard layout for Terminal - maybe it's set to a layout that
> is remapping one of the characters in your password. Oh, and the admin
> account *does* have a password, right? As in, not blank?

And check Caps Lock.

In article <nospam.News.Bob->,
Bob Harris <> wrote:

> In article <%u0Ml.25743$Db2.8679@edtnps83>,
> (Király) wrote:
>
> > John Matthew <> wrote:
> > > Recently, I tried to run routine maintenance using the sudo command and
> > > Terminal is not accepting my admin password. This has not happened
> > > before. Not having any trouble with login - just when using Terminal.
> > > Any ideas?

Still not working.

> > Check the keyboard layout for Terminal - maybe it's set to a layout that
> > is remapping one of the characters in your password. Oh, and the admin
> > account *does* have a password, right? As in, not blank?

How do I check the keyboard layout for terminal?

> And check Caps Lock.

Caps lock is off. Admin account has password, only admin has access to
run Terminal Please inform as to how to check the keyboard layout for
terminal.

>Check the following:

>Caps Lock Key

caps lock is off

>That the account in question has admin privileges (actually check it in
>System Preferences / Accounts)

account in question has admin priveleges and is the only one that does
and is able to run Terminal commands

>and if you can, look at the /etc/sudoers file. It needs admin access
>so
>it might be a bit of a trick to see. It should include the following
>lines:
>root ALL=(ALL) ALL
>%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

tried to look at file but password was requested and, of course, access
denied since my password is not being accepted

>Try doing a "login user" command with the account in question. This
>will differentiate whether it's a password problem with that account or
>an issue with sudo access.

did "login user" with problem account and received same messages -
sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:
Sorry, try again.
sudo: 3 incorrect password attempts

I did notice that every time when I typed in the second alpha-numeric or
special character of my password, there was a brief flash on the word
Edit in the Terminal menu bar. Has my computer been hijacked?

Another anomaly happening recently is that after a time when I have 6 or
more tabs open in Safari 3.1.2 in Tiger with activity in one or more of
them, the window will freeze and I have the close that window. I don't
get a not responding error in force quit - just the window locks up.

>Perhaps the account from which you're attempting to use sudo does not
>have administrative privileges? Another possibility is that the file
>'/etc/sudoers' has gone missing or is corrupt.

yes account has admin privileges
how do I restore or correct the /etc/sudoers file - see earlier in the
post - I tried to access the file and was denied access with password

I changed password in system prefs/accounts and terminal will not take
the new password either - the admin account is being denied access and
there is only that one account on this computer

In article <4a0131dc$0$90264$>,
John Matthew <> wrote:

> I did notice that every time when I typed in the second alpha-numeric or
> special character of my password, there was a brief flash on the word
> Edit in the Terminal menu bar. Has my computer been hijacked?

Have you installed or enabled any 'keyboard substitution' software since
you last used the 'sudo' command?

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

John Matthew <> wrote:

> I did notice that every time when I typed in the second alpha-numeric or
> special character of my password, there was a brief flash on the word
> Edit in the Terminal menu bar. Has my computer been hijacked?

I doubt it has been "hijacked". More likely that some setting or third
party software is interfering with you typing the password.

That flash indicates that the key you typed triggered a command in the
Edit menu, so it probably wasn't being entered as a character in the
password.

Are you able to type that specific character in another context within
Terminal, e.g. at the normal shell prompt?

I will assume that produces the same flash of the Edit menu, and the key
isn't actually typed. You need to establish why that is happening.

Are you able to type that specific character in other applications?

Some possibilities:

1. System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Check for any unusual keyboard shortcuts referencing that key, possibly
specific to the Terminal application, or globally.

2. System Preferences > Speech > Text to Speech > Speak selected text
when the key is pressed.

If this option is enabled, click the Set Key button and check that it
isn't set to something in your password. On two computers I've seen this
somehow get set to an easily typed letter, preventing that letter from
being used normally. You can't use System Preferences to set an
unmodified character for this feature, so something else must have
modified the appropriate plist directly.

(This would have a system-wide effect, so doesn't seem likely in this
case.)

3. Some third party product which is reacting to that key and generating
a different keypress instead.

There could be other explanations.

> >Perhaps the account from which you're attempting to use sudo does not
> >have administrative privileges? Another possibility is that the file
> >'/etc/sudoers' has gone missing or is corrupt.
>
> yes account has admin privileges
> how do I restore or correct the /etc/sudoers file - see earlier in the
> post - I tried to access the file and was denied access with password

Use a different tool to access it. TextWrangler (free) can open files
with root privileges after you authenticate as an admin user.

I expect you will find that /etc/sudoers is fine. The problem is
whatever is preventing you typing your password in Terminal.

> I changed password in system prefs/accounts and terminal will not take
> the new password either - the admin account is being denied access and
> there is only that one account on this computer

Create another admin account and try that.

--
David Empson