This article describes how to grant sudo access to a new or existing user on the Ubuntu® operating system.

Create a new user

1. Use adduser command followed by the new <username>:

   root@server-01:~# adduser newuser
   Adding user newuser' ... Adding new group newuser' (1001) ...
   Adding new user newuser' (1001) with group newuser' ...
   Creating home directory /home/newuser' ... Copying files from /etc/skel' ...

2. At the prompt, enter the password for the new user twice to set and verify it.

   New password:
   Retype new password:
   passwd: password updated successfully

3. If you want to add contact information for the new user, enter it at the prompt
   or press ENTER to proceed with the defaults. When you finish, enter y to
   verify that the entered information is correct:

   Changing the user information for newuser
   Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
     Full Name []: New Hire
     Room Number []:
     Work Phone []:
     Home Phone []:
     Other []:
   Is the information correct? [Y/n] y
   

Grant root permissions for a new or existing user.

1. Use visudo to edit the sudoers file.

   root@server-01:~# visudo
   

2. Text similar to the following example displays:

   GNU nano 4.8 /etc/sudoers.tmp

   This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.

   Please consider adding local content in /etc/sudoers.d/ instead of

   directly modifying this file.

   See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.

   Defaults env_reset
   Defaults mail_badpass
   Defaults secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:>

   Host alias specification

   User alias specification

   Cmnd alias specification

   User privilege specification

   root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

   Members of the admin group may gain root privileges

   %admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

   Allow members of group sudo to execute any command

   %sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

   See sudoers(5) for more information on "#include" directives:

   #includedir /etc/sudoers.d

3. Use the Down Arrow key to scroll to the following section:

   User privilege specification

   root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

4. Add the newly created user by inserting <username> ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
   at the end of the user privilege section, as shown in the following example:

   # User privilege specification
   root    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
   newuser ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
   

5. Press the Ctrl x to exit. Enter y to save, and click ENTER to finish.

Verify the permission change

1. Use su followed by the <username> to switch to the new user account:

   root@server-01:~# su - newuser
   newuser@server-01:~$

2. Use sudo -i to verify that the user account can elevate permissions.
   At the prompt, enter the new user's password:

   newuser@server-01:~$ sudo -i
   [sudo] password for newuser:
   root@server-01:~#
   

3. Use whoami to verify that you are currently the root user:

   root@server-01:~# whoami
   root

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