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Adding User Problems


Guest Ezekiel
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I ran the command and the new users were in both /etc/passwd and etc/shadow.

 

comparing the entries to existing users that seem to work OK showed a difference in the /etc/shadow file.

 

the user I set up last night (using "useradd + passwd") had a whole load of goblledigook (technical term :oops: ) after the first colon (password related?) the other two had two exclamation marks in the same place. After the second colon was a number that was also different to the existing accounts that work.

 

By home, do you mean the files /home/[userid]? if so then yes they have been.

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I think I am part way to solving this. After I followed your instructions about looking at the shadow file, I had a closer look at the man pages for useradd and then usermod where I found 'usermod -U' which unlocks a user account (displayed in shadow as an exclamation mark in front of the encrypted password) so I ran this twice for a newly created account and I can log in using it.

 

My only question now (relating this any way :lol: ) is why the accounts get set up as locked (twice) and how I can reset this (or should I not) but I think I will have a look around for it myself.

 

Thank you all for your help

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I completely agree with aru on this point.

Distro specific tools are OK but 9.1 (without updates) in particular is very buggy.

I had the same problems as you but just deleted the lock and did it from the prompt. If you rely on specific tools you lock yourself into one distro and Linux is about choice.

 

Ive noticed that most of the tools don't actually work, esecially server config ones like squid. They were trying to run as root which for a proxy server is a horrendously bad idea. When I changed it to run as squid (after adduser) I had to recursively change directory permissions.

 

I like using linuxconf or Webmin as graphical tools and seeing the command line for fine control.

 

The big problem with the Drake tools is really the lack of the user understanding what they are doing. All very well whilst it works but as soon as it doesn't the user is screwed. At least Webmin and linux conf tell you which files are being edited.

 

I find the lack of control/ giving knowledge in the drak tools really Windows like and that's definately a bad thing.

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Yes, I take your point.

 

I think I have just got lazy having used windoze for over ten years now, having started with unix in college. My escuse is that I was seduced by the pretty colours and flashy buttons :oops:.

 

I have now forgotten pretty much all I knew (which admittedly wasn't an awful lot) so am finding Linux an up hill struggle.

 

Still, you guys are a great help and I reckon I'm bloody-minded enough to carry on :twisted:

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  • 1 year later...
Guest ajrwatson

I had probs with my linux box along these lines just today.

 

If you don't pass your desired password to adduser, I think maybe it generates a random one or something.

 

I found running passwd as the user in question required the old password, running it as root only required the new one.

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