Ubuntu
gnome-disk-utility package

ROOT OWNER(S) ON MY PC. I NEED HELP!!!

Asked by Russell Morris

I am 1 of 2 root/owners on my pc with a Linux Ubuntu 12.04.3 OS. There's the main root itself then me. I urgently need to erase everything (due to an outside source that has gained entry to my pc and is giving me grief) on the pc and do a clean install but the unmount option in the disk utility does not recognize me as one of the root / owners so that I can do so. All that happens when I try to attempt the unmount is that an error window pops up stating that I am not the owner and do not have permissions to unmount. What do I have to do to rectify this so that it recognizes me. I should also add that when I type the command of "whoami" in Terminal it shows me as; bar - Russell L Morris and as root@russ-dimension4700.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

There is only one root. It is 'root'. You may have sudo access by being in the sudo group but you are not root. You are nothing more than a user but due to the group membership you are able to use sudo to run commands needing root access.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

If you want to wipe clean and reinstall then do it from the install CD. Partitioning is part of the install procedure.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#3

You seem to misunderstand the admin authorization concept of Ubuntu.
Read https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

For the umount command you most probably have to put "sudo" in front of it to activate administrative authorizations. And you have to be aware that you cannot unmount a file system that is active (i.e. you cannot unmount the file system from that you have booted the computer).

I am not sure how the inability to unmount a file system would prevent you from reinstalling Ubuntu.

As actionparsnip already wrote: Download a Ubuntu installation .iso file, burn it to DVD or USB stick and boot from that medium (see http://www.ubuntu.com/download for instructions how to prepare such media).
This will enable you to clean up everything that is on your disk(s) during the partitioning step of the installation, or even without installing in the "try Ubuntu" mode you can also manipulate the partitions on your hard disk(s).

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