ok, so maybe this page i was looking at was just blatantly lieing, but it gave me the impression that to add a user you type useradd [options] [username]

so i typed, as root

useradd -gusers -pmypassword -d/home/Richard -m richard

but i cant log on.

always says password is incorrect.

so i then (admitedly stupidly) used usermod. i wanted to change the root password so that it wasnt just auto login, to make it more secure.

usermod -prootpassword root

now guess what? i cant login as root either!!!!

have i just broken everything? what the **** is up with this? i have never had any problems command line administrating stuff before

help!

To change the password of a user you use
command
Type for more details

hmmm so i found out. i had to boot up a live ubuntu cd and delete the password from /etc/shadow

Just to explain why you was unlucky with "useradd -p mypassword":
the "-p" argument expects a _encrypted_ password, not a plain password.
You can get this encrypted password with "mkpasswd" command and uses the result as argument to "-p".

cheers,

just use adduser, instead

soule

@ marozsas

yeah i noticed that as i was deleting it from the shadow file

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