Overview

The error message "Failed to elevate using sudo or sudo is not available" typically indicates that the system or user attempting to execute a command does not have the necessary privileges to elevate their permissions using the "sudo" command. The "sudo" command is commonly used in Unix-like operating systems to execute commands with administrative or superuser privileges.

Symptom

Linux collection fails with the following error message:

Failed to elevate using sudo or sudo is not available

Troubleshooting

If the account is not in the sudoers file, you will not be able to use the sudo command to perform administrative tasks on the system. This includes using an account to profile the Linux endpoint. When you use sudo, you may see an error message "is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported."

Try using another account that has administrative privileges to log in to the system and add your account to the sudoers file. This can be done by using the visudo command to edit the /etc/sudoers file. For example, if the username of the account that needs to be added to the sudoers file is "user", you can use the following command to edit the file:

su -c visudo

Then add the following line to the end of the file:

user ALL=(ALL) ALL

Save the file and exit. Now the user "user" should be able to use sudo to perform administrative tasks.

If you don't have another account with administrative privileges, you can try booting into single-user mode and adding your account to the sudoers file. To do this, restart the system and hold down Command+S during startup. This will boot the system into a command-line interface. Then, use the following command to remount the file system as writable:

/sbin/mount -uw /

Next, use the visudo command to edit the /etc/sudoers file as described above to add your account to the file. Save the file and exit, then reboot the system by typing reboot at the command prompt.

If the above steps do not work, you may need to contact the system administrator or IT support for further assistance. They may need to reset your account's privileges or provide you with another account that has administrative privileges.