How to Reinstall Linux

[Gumballinabattleaxeninja]

Ok, question of any of the techies that could help me out on this. I have the shittiest laptop ever made. It has Ubuntu on it and through many painstaking errors, I cannot sign into the administrator. When I do, it immediately goes back to the admin/guest logon screen. I can however go into the guest session no problem, and do whatever. Well not completely whatever or I wouldn't be asking. Now when I type sudo update it says "Unable to Change Sudoers Gid" Operation no permitted. I have the password for the admin, I was going to reinstall or update Linux to get this freaking error out of the way that won't let me sign in with the admin. Can this be fixed by reinstalling Ubuntu?

[achow101]

You can't sudo under the guest account because it doesn't have permissions to use sudo.

Try hitting ctrl + alt + f1. That will take you to the TTY (a text only console, basically the terminal). Then try logging in as root there and do whatever you need to do. You can also fix the problem you are having with logging in if you can figure out the right commands to fix it; I don't know how you would do that though.

[Gumballinabattleaxeninja]

Ok, I tried that, and it asks for the account name to login, which I have no idea, then the password, for which I do know. So it did not work. Let me ask you this, if I reinstall Ubuntu from a USB ISO, will that permanently delete the admin that is stored on here now? Through Guest session, this comp works 50% great. I say that only because everything works, but not for admin set. I want to reinstall Ubuntu fresh with no admin, where I can make changes I need to accordingly.

[achow101]

Ok, I tried that, and it asks for the account name to login, which I have no idea, then the password, for which I do know.

The account name is probably root

So it did not work. Let me ask you this, if I reinstall Ubuntu from a USB ISO, will that permanently delete the admin that is stored on here now? Through Guest session, this comp works 50% great. I say that only because everything works, but not for admin set. I want to reinstall Ubuntu fresh with no admin, where I can make changes I need to accordingly.

You can install ubuntu again but it may not fix your problem unless you do a clean install. If you install over your current install, it may retain the issue there as settings, files, etc. are still kept.

[Gumballinabattleaxeninja]

Thank you very much for this help. I have to go buy a USB stick because my daughter either ate mine or lost it. I'm unsure which, Yeah she's like that But thank you very much once again. Your keyword "Clean Install" helped me out bigtime.

[Jannn]

Ok, I tried that, and it asks for the account name to login, which I have no idea, then the password, for which I do know. So it did not work. Let me ask you this, if I reinstall Ubuntu from a USB ISO, will that permanently delete the admin that is stored on here now? Through Guest session, this comp works 50% great. I say that only because everything works, but not for admin set. I want to reinstall Ubuntu fresh with no admin, where I can make changes I need to accordingly.

You say "administrator" but you mean "root". Log in as root and use the admin password.
A reinstall asks what to do with your data. Delete everything is easy.

[Gumballinabattleaxeninja]

Ok I have researched it and heres what my issue is. I have a constant redirecting Login Loop. I can only login through Guest Login, and I do not know the password when you open the terminal at the login screen. So I am going to make a bootable USB drive from Windows Comp I have and hopefully do a reinstall of linux. My question is, will it "erase" the admin that on the computer when I do this? I need it to, because I don't know any of the information to it.


EDIT:

I did sucessfully preform this and the error is gone. I wanted a fresh install anyways since I didn't get to install the OS to begin with.

[yueno]

Linux is an operating system if you want to re install linux you must have bootable flashdrive installed by linux and installed it in bios just like windows operating system. You can also use virtual machine if you want to have many operating system in your one computer but make sure that you a lot of storage, memory and speed.

[Straux]

If you've successfully solved this problem I'd highly recommend clicking the "lock topic" button at the bottom right of this thread. It is of no use to anyone now.