visudo killed my suders file

[CU]

I tired to use visudo, but nothing happened. So I tried visudo -f /etc/sudoers thinking I needed to give it the file. But now my /etc/suders file is the error output from visudo about a syntax error on line 1. Why would visudo write its error output to /etc/sudoers? It is suppose to write a valid file not a syntax error message. This was with Ubuntu 14.04. Now I get to try and found out how to create a new one.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Log in as root, use nano to fix it. Or boot from a recovery disk and copy a fresh one over.

 

[CU]

I think root is disabled in Ubuntu and I cannot enable it since I can not sudo. But, I think I can fix it in recovery mode or a live CD.

 

[CU]

Why isn't it made where if the suders file has a syntax error it reads from a backup of the original file stored somewhere?

 

[CU]

Fixed it with pkexec visudo. Didn't even have to go into recovery mode or anything.