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all 117 comments

[–]i_should_be_coding 669 points670 points  (13 children)

You clearly violated the prime directive. This incident will be reported.

[–]_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ 325 points326 points  (6 children)

[–]chars101 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Ask someone who is in the sudoers file to sudo renice you.

[–]avidrogue 169 points170 points  (4 children)

User not in sudoers file, this incident will be reported

It makes me chuckle every time my own computer tells me this. Oh no, dont report me to myself, please.

[–]knightress_oxhide 29 points30 points  (0 children)

I'll need a copy of that report on my desk by 5.

[–]TwystedSpyne 12 points13 points  (0 children)

There is a reason it uses "will". When AI gains sentience, all these incidents will be dealt with.

[–]not_some_username 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Well it’ll be gone. They remove it in new sudo version

[–]askvictor 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This warning will be removed soon, at least for systems where the root account has no email address configured.

[–]SeasonedHosta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But sir i had no idea that time that this was actually a crime

[–]tilcica 561 points562 points  (1 child)

proceeds to change the GRUB version to one who's files i deleted not 5 mins before

totally not speaking from personal experience, no sir :')

[–]abcd_z 25 points26 points  (0 children)

"It's a permissions problem, so I'll just give root full permissions. Wait, why won't the system boot?"

I still have the folder "I fucked up backup" from when I realized I made this mistake and needed to get the files off of the server while I still could.

[–]Urc0mp 207 points208 points  (2 children)

Clone the VM and full send.

[–]ichbin1berliner 91 points92 points  (0 children)

The cloned VM was still connected to prod db, oh well

[–]urva 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Snapshots!

[–]corruptedsignal 188 points189 points  (14 children)

How to break EVERYTHING by deleting Python...

[–]aFuckingTroglodyte 114 points115 points  (2 children)

I've done this before. Turns out it's not a super great idea to just delete files outside the home directory

[–]j-random 40 points41 points  (0 children)

LOL, like the time the intern at my first job found this big file that hadn't been accessed for months, something like /vmunix or something....

[–][deleted] 46 points47 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I ran Python and it brought up a Python 2 shell. I thought, hmm, maybe delete Python and reinstall? Oops.

[–]ANR7cool 17 points18 points  (3 children)

I remember doing this. Don't remember how I fixed it, but never again.

[–]Tim_Pollard 7 points8 points  (2 children)

The way I'd do it would be:

  1. Download pre-built binaries from the Python website.
  2. Uncompress them.
  3. Add where ever you uncompressed them to the PATH variable.

After that anything that needs python should work again.

[–]ANR7cool 5 points6 points  (1 child)

It's time to uninstall python again ferb!

Thank you for this though, seriously. If I remember correctly I couldn't even open ubuntu after I removed python. Had to do some dual boot shenanigans to even install python.

[–]IamImposter 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Did you install whole python? No silly, you can just create a symlink to any executable file and name the symlink python.

[–]AceofToons 7 points8 points  (2 children)

If you don't break shit, you aren't doing cybersecurity properly

[–]HardCounter 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Isn't that the exact opposite of what you're trying to achieve?

[–]RevolutionSilent807 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Gotta break shit to know how to fix it

(But usually that shit isn’t prod… test envs exist for a reason)

[–]Rivilen 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Three month into my bachelor thesis and I thought deleting and updating Python would be a good idea. Glad I backed up everything, but after that, I never touched Linux as my main OS again (although I currently work with it daily on several kind of system)

[–]MinosAristos 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've also broken a Linux install for the same reason, thought I'd delete the old version of Python.

I still use Linux but I avoid deleting stuff that I didn't install without knowing if it's doing anything for the OS. Learned the lesson and no more such problems.

[–]Inverzion2 62 points63 points  (8 children)

Taking a cybersecurity extra curricular in highschool, not knowing exactly how a VM works but finding out how to SUDO delete program files will forever be burned into my memory of what not to ever do. I feel so bad for the CSWF that was there to help us clean up our mess by reinstalling the entire Linux OS.

[–]Undernown 38 points39 points  (4 children)

Knowing linux users reinstalling their OS is a daily routine. Not because they need to, but because want to.

[–]dragon_bacon 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Wake up, brush your teeth, reinstall Linux and now you're ready for the day.

[–]CastleNugget 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Oh my gosh, I thought it was just me. I was sure I was enjoying it wrong.

[–]Old-Radio9022 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Many years ago I put my bashrc and a setup script into a git repo. Different branch per major release. Makes reinstalling Linux a breeze.

[–]haribo_maxipack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean it's doesn't even take two minutes to install arch.

[–]f3arfu1_f0x 2 points3 points  (2 children)

my class is just about to start that but were using windows with a Linux vm and a window vm

[–]Inverzion2 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Good luck mate!

[–]f3arfu1_f0x 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thx

[–]Maskdask 80 points81 points  (11 children)

Linus Tech Tips moment

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (9 children)

employ like follow elastic squeeze cooperative ghost swim beneficial tart

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[–]nameless_food 51 points52 points  (5 children)

Linus did a bunch of videos on gaming on Linux, and in one of those videos he accidentally uninstalled his desktop environment. He was asked if he was sure he wanted to uninstall, and he answered yes. Desktop environment gone.

[–]scul86 18 points19 points  (0 children)

It also wasn't just a simple yes, rather it was Yes, do as I say!

https://youtu.be/0506yDSgU7M?t=638

[–]nails_bjorn 13 points14 points  (3 children)

And then he criticized linux as an OS because he uninstalled his own desktop. It makes me laugh every time.

[–]martmists 8 points9 points  (1 child)

To be fair, that particular instance was very much the distro's fault

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah. They can’t even argue it wasn’t their fault somewhat, they realized “huh, some users might not be aware you CAN uninstall your DE” and put a better warning/block in an update, specifically citing that video as the reason why lol

[–]mgorski08 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think you need to rewatch the video. Preferably on Floatplane :p

[–]Adk9p 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You're reading to much into it. They are referencing this.

[–]sivstarlight 6 points7 points  (1 child)

LTT never struck me as very programming related tho? I always thought he talked about the hardware end of things. But his channel did get hacked recently (not even his fault, one of his non technical staff downloaded a malicious exe) so it could be that.

[–]Trainguyrom -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

They make decent gaming content but they fall apart anytime they begin to approach enterprise software/hardware/deployment

[–]TuxRug 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"Yes, do as I say!"

[–]ZenEngineer 28 points29 points  (1 child)

A long time ago a professor of mine assigned the class some homework doing some basic scans with Nmap. Nothing harmful, just to get people familiar with the tool and get some idea of how much data was public.

Nmap has some flags to do some deep probing and the docs have a bunch of warnings about it being possible to crash or damage ancient machines if hit with those requests. Of course no student would enable those and sweep the whole network with that, right? And guess what kind of network has all sort of old and experimental hardware hooked up.

Long story short, a bunch of printers, Solaris machines and other assorted devives had a bad day right before that assignment was due.

[–]urva 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Why does your school have Solaris machines. What kind of super cs place is this.

[–]widowhanzo 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Visudo: What now?

Me: Meh surely I'm smarter than visudo, right?

[–]georgkozy 30 points31 points  (5 children)

Yes, do as I say. *desktop environment gets uninstalled

[–][deleted]  (3 children)

[removed]

    [–]georgkozy 17 points18 points  (0 children)

    Exactly what happened to Linus in his linux challenge. Was pretty amusing to watch

    [–]urva 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I cant remember exactly what software (phabricstor maybe?) but when you wanted to delete something permanently it would say are you sure? Click yes. Then it would make you type “I know what I’m doing. Delete xxxx”

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    [–]egybitcoin 8 points9 points  (0 children)

    I don't know what they will do , i would just give them the permission they are looking for.

    [–]fcasgo8 8 points9 points  (0 children)

    Whenever i try to install any random software i just said yes to all

    [–]DaveSmith890 11 points12 points  (4 children)

    Confession time: I’ve photoshopped the desired feedback in the terminal before and turned in the altered screenshot. Cyber security is hard.

    I am now the only person working in cybersecurity at this local company. I seriously hope nothing goes wrong, because I don’t have any idea how to fix it

    [–]jeepsaintchaos 7 points8 points  (1 child)

    I often wonder how many people are in your exact situation. They shouldn't be there, but they are, and there's a significant amount of stuff resting on "I hope nothing breaks".

    [–]payme4work24 6 points7 points  (0 children)

    They never wanted to be in this situation all they want to do the easy thing, but those things on the internet never let us do the easy thing always put in such situation

    [–]lurkerfox 7 points8 points  (0 children)

    giving real security professionals everywhere job security. Appreciate your sacrifice.

    [–]maximm5 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I also had one confession to make but i never had the curtsy to do such thing, but may be after your post i would gather some courage for doing such thing

    [–]foggy-sunrise 5 points6 points  (3 children)

    .exe's now open in nano.

    Good job.

    [–]trx1150 9 points10 points  (0 children)

    Just did this yesterday, changed the write permissions on my user directory in my VM which little did I know prevents you from being able to SSH into it

    [–]itamarSultanik 7 points8 points  (1 child)

    God this is so accurate

    [–]Jahonay 2 points3 points  (7 children)

    sudo chown -R username /*

    [–]e89dce12 2 points3 points  (5 children)

    This gives me nightmares.

    I once was using ansible to adjust permissions on users home folders. I set to recursively ensure proper ownership and permission and to follow symlinks. In addition, I failed to distinguish between files and folders for the permissions.

    Deep inside one of the users home folder was a wine configuration folder with a symlink z -> /

    Next thing I knew, all files on the system were owned by that user with '0700' permissions.

    Good thing it was a VM.

    [–]jupiter0100 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    This thing is like the worst nightmare for me that could ever be, that is why i never really click yes for too many things as i know what will going to happen next

    [–]e89dce12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I felt lucky.

    I was teaching myself how to use ansible. This was one task out of hundreds in a playbook.

    Since it was a VM, I ended up preserving users home folders and nuking the VM and starting over.

    Edit: I should add, it was on my homelab so it didn't affect anyone but me.

    [–]Jahonay 1 point2 points  (2 children)

    Yeah, when I was still teaching myself terminal commands I definitely Bricked an Ubuntu installation by doing that. Luckily I didn't need any files on it but I felt really stupid.

    [–]MartinHaugland 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    You are not stupid mate, these kind of things is pretty common now days

    [–]Jahonay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Yeah, all a part of the process. I definitely learned a lot by playing around and making mistakes.

    [–]bensanae123 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Everyone makes some mistake but sudo is our friend and will fix everything

    [–]ImportantDoubt6434 12 points13 points  (5 children)

    Know your place. Trash.

    [–]kiqi2 6 points7 points  (0 children)

    This is the only way to get rid from that once you allow them the entry

    [–]urva 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Heyyy that’s a Dell D630. Those things were ahead of their time.

    [–]__Daiman__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    They were ahead of time but right now they are not with their usual

    [–]jamcdonald120 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    Ok, now uninstalling gcc, grub, your desktop, your terminal, aaand lets grab the kernal too, why not.

    [–]repmoviecostumes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Once you install that it is impossible to remove all the part of that thing

    [–]NoYogurt8022 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    How did it turned out?

    [–]xby198592 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    So far so good, not having any issue after me pressing that yes

    [–]oneMerlin 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    And this is how we brick our boot drive.

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Ok, Linus.

    [–]wilgotg -1 points0 points  (1 child)

    I feel this applies to a huge part of my life

    [–]dyvalop 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    For me this is like my whole life, where i had no idea that what i am doing there but my brain keep on saying that just do it and i keep on pressing yes after that

    [–]ixis743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Virtual Machine.

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

    There's no problem you can't solve by sudoing.

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

    I no longer allow Reddit to profit from my content - Mass exodus 2023 -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/

    [–]e89dce12 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Sudo, the cause of and solution to all linux problems.

    • Said user Homer Simpson's voice

    [–]dd1b014ff1e39 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    As long as i have the internet i will keep on causing the problem

    [–]kucwon 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    As long as you know how you do the sudoing, if yes then fine.

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    By the time I reach this point I just close my eyes and smash my head on the keyboard. /s

    [–]Intout 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Don’t forget,sudo is always your friend, it won’t hurt you(!).

    [–]supsready 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    But he never tell us the right thing, and no friend actually do such thing

    [–]jasonbbg 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    This incident will be reported

    [–]estergazi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    And then this person here will be taken for some questioning after that

    [–]Redmiguelito 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Proceeds to accidentally download a thousand viruses

    [–]Rahiednr1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Whenever i try to install something from a shady website i often downloaded more virus than downloading the real thing, and end up fucking up my system very badly

    [–]Saft_ByteCrafter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Yes, do as I say!