I just powerwashed (that's a factory reset on chromebooks) my computer so that it would be be 'brand new,' however now I don't have sudo access anymore. I used to not need a password to use sudo, however now a password is required and I have no idea what it is. I tried my login password, however that didn't work. Any advice?
How to gain sudo access after powerwashing (factory resetting) my computer?
sudo;chrome book
NOTE: I wrote this before the chromebook tag was added.  These instructions are applicable to Linux systems; I have no idea what Chromebook is like or if these instructions will work on Chrome OS.First, try logging out and logging in as root using your own password.  It may not work, but if so you've got it handled easily.  The point here is that root access, or having the root password, is not the same as having sudo privileges.  sudo must be configured before it will work.If you can't log in as root, the fastest method of handling I know if is to reboot in single user mode.  (root is the single user.)  To do this, reboot and look for a message something like press any key to enter the menu...  Then press a key to enter GRUB.You don't need to arrow up or down to choose a different entry in the GRUB list; the selected one will do.  Press e to edit the entry.  That will bring you to another list; on my CentOS VM I have 3 lines, which start with root, kernel and initrd respectively.  Arrow key to the kernel line, press e to edit, add a space followed by a 1 at the end of the line you are editing, then press Enter to accept changes, and then press b to boot.The system will come up in single user mode; you will get a bash prompt with a # sign.  You are now logged in as root!To change the root password so you will know what it is from here on out, type passwd and follow the prompts to enter your new root password (twice).To set yourself up to run sudo in the future: type less /etc/sudoers and verify that it includes the line #includedir /etc/sudoers.d (the # is not a comment for this line).  It will probably be at the bottom of the file.Then, add a file named elsie to /etc/sudoers.d with the contentselsie ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL(assuming elsie is your user name.)  I recommend leaving out the NOPASSWD part for security consciousness and instead using the line elsie ALL=(ALL) ALL, but that's your decision.  You can do this most easily by typing:echo 'elsie ALL=(ALL) ALL' >> /etc/sudoers.d/elsieThen simply reboot as usual.  You will have sudo access, and you now also know the root password for future use.