mssql server set up fail with errror on debian linux

I had a similar issue on a system without sudo, where I was logged in as root. I changed the location like David Leal proposed, but also removed all other uses of sudo using:

sed -i 's@sudo, "-EH", @@;s@"sudo", @@g' /opt/mssql/lib/mssql-conf/mssqlconfhelper.py
sed -i 's@sudo -EH@su@' /opt/mssql/lib/mssql-conf/invokesqlservr.sh

Side note: David Leal's solution exits with an error (at least on version 15.0.4063.15-10). I probably works, if you start and enable the service by hand afterwards.

Side note 2: The sudo variable from line 43 in mssqlconfhelper.py is used only once in line 930 with arguments, and changing it to an empty string unfortunately does not help. Why MS does not consequently use the variable is questionable, and would resort in only need to change two lines of code.

I was istalling it on a docker container based on the debian:buster image,and i had the following error:

root@25d7455d0dfc:/# /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/mssql/bin/../lib/mssql-conf/mssql-conf.py", line 361, in <module>
    main()
  File "/opt/mssql/bin/../lib/mssql-conf/mssql-conf.py", line 357, in main
    processCommands()
  File "/opt/mssql/bin/../lib/mssql-conf/mssql-conf.py", line 262, in processCommands
    COMMAND_TABLE[args.which]()
  File "/opt/mssql/bin/../lib/mssql-conf/mssql-conf.py", line 75, in handleSetup
    mssqlconfhelper.setupSqlServer(eulaAccepted, noprompt=args.noprompt)
  File "/opt/mssql/lib/mssql-conf/mssqlconfhelper.py", line 971, in setupSqlServer
    if not checkInstall():
  File "/opt/mssql/lib/mssql-conf/mssqlconfhelper.py", line 941, in checkInstall
    return runScript(checkInstallScript, True) == 0
  File "/opt/mssql/lib/mssql-conf/mssqlconfhelper.py", line 930, in runScript
    return subprocess.call([sudo, "-EH", pathToScript])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 172, in call
    return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 394, in __init__
    errread, errwrite)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1047, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

So visited the python script at line 930: vim +930 /opt/mssql/lib/mssql-conf/mssqlconfhelper.py

And I saw this if condition:

if (runAsRoot):
    if(checkSudo() == False):
        printError(_("Elevated privileges required for this action. Please run in 'sudo' mode."))
        return (errorExitCode)
    return subprocess.call([sudo, "-EH", pathToScript])
else:
    return subprocess.call([pathToScript])

Since I'm running as root and it enters the first condition 'runAsRoot' the script run the following return subprocess.call([sudo, "-EH", pathToScript])

I changed that line to: return subprocess.call([pathToScript])

After that, the setup command worked for me. /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup

i had the same issue when i was installing mssql on docker in an Ubuntu 16.04 container. the issue is the missing sudo. for some reason, even though i installed a whole bunch of software without sudo, setting up the mssql server seems to need the command to the run only with sudo.

1. install sudo: apt-get install -y sudo
2. now try the command: sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup

now you should be able to successfully setup the config for the mssql server