cannot find user ID 500

fernin8r · 02-18-2003, 06:54 PM

Has anyone seen this when they open their terminal?

id: cannot find name for user ID 500
[I have no name!@ localhost ...]$

i don't understand why i get this. I hope it's not a big problem...i've tried to recreate the user, but it didn't work.

thanks for any help

Mike

nxny · 02-18-2003, 07:33 PM

The unix user ids are usually looked up in /etc/passwd. Do you have this file?

fernin8r · 02-19-2003, 01:28 AM

yes...i have that file

jdc2048 · 02-19-2003, 01:46 AM

If you recreated the user, it probably was assigned a new id. You are going to have to hack your /etc/passwd & /etc/group files back into shape.

Some more detail would help. I'm curious how you logged in as that user if it is not being found. Did you remove the user while logged in as that user? (i.e. su to root from user, then remove user).

fernin8r · 02-19-2003, 01:59 AM

okay...i've removed the user while under root. then i went back an created the user using the same name.

i'm in the /etc/passwd file as:

fernin8r:x:500:500:NAME:/home/fernin8r:/bin/bash

it looks correct....am i missing something?

born4linux · 02-19-2003, 02:45 AM

fernin8r:x:500:500:NAME:/home/fernin8r:/bin/bash

what username are u using? is it fernin8r? do u experience the same prob with other users?

try this:

usermod -u 500 -g 500 fernin8r

u need to be logged in as root to do this.

fernin8r · 02-19-2003, 03:34 AM

my groupname and username are the same: fernin8r

i'll try that. thanks

fernin8r · 02-19-2003, 10:52 AM

well....i put

usermod -u 500 -g 500 fernin8r

in my /etc/passwd file, but it didn't do anything
i also typed it in the command line of the terminal. I'm lost. The terminal still works fine, it just can't find the userID. Is this a problem?

nxny · 02-19-2003, 06:37 PM

very weird indeed.

How about this.. ? Can we create a brand new user using the useradd command and see if you can login as this user?

born4linux · 02-19-2003, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fernin8r
well....i put

usermod -u 500 -g 500 fernin8r

in my /etc/passwd file, but it didn't do anything
i also typed it in the command line of the terminal. I'm lost. The terminal still works fine, it just can't find the userID. Is this a problem?

try this:

cd /home

ls -l

and check the uid/gid of your directory or post it here if u want.

fernin8r · 02-20-2003, 03:31 PM

here's what it shows:

drwx------ 38 fernin8r fernin8r 4096 Feb 19 10:48 fernin8r
drwx------ 11 Nikatia users 4096 Feb 19 02:04 Nikatia

fernin8r and Nikatia are both users. both of them get the "cannont find userid 500" thing. thanks

jdc2048 · 02-21-2003, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by fernin8r
well....i put

usermod -u 500 -g 500 fernin8r

in my /etc/passwd file, but it didn't do anything

I hope you removed this line from your passwd file.

You should never type things like this directly into your passwd file. That was a command line to be issued in a terminal.

Only experienced users should be editing their passwd file by hand, and even then a utility like vipw is better than nothing.

fernin8r · 02-21-2003, 09:14 AM

jdc

yeah...i removed that line. Do you have any ideas though? what is vipw?

thanks,
mike

jdc2048 · 02-23-2003, 06:29 PM

"vipw" is "vi" with syntax checking for the passwd file. I baxsically checks to ensure that all the fields are correct. It would have prevented you from entering that line into the passwd file.

born4linux · 02-23-2003, 08:14 PM

what are the entries for these users:

fernin8r
Nikatia

in /etc/passwd, /etc/group and /etc/shadow?

also, run this as root:

chown -R fernin8r.fernin8r /home/fernin8r

chown -R Nikatia.users /home/Nikatia

if u have created fernin8r and Nikatia consecutively, they should have uid 500 and 501 consecutively (fernin8r has a gid of 500 and Niikatia has the gid of the users group).