adduser adds a user but I can't login afterwards

sheps126 · 01-15-2009, 12:04 AM

Hi Guys,

This is really frustrating me ... I have read the tutorials and other forum posts, and the man page for adduser, and understand most of it (I hope) but when I create a new user using:

# useradd -gusers -s/bin/bash -pPassword1 -d/home/username -m username

I can't seem to login to that user afterwards. Once logged in as root I can '# su username' (and it doesn't ask me for a password), but when I try to login from the beginning with 'login as: username' it doesn't accept the password.

I am using Fedora 9, any help would much appreciated.

Thanks!

Wim Sturkenboom · 01-15-2009, 01:16 AM

Not sure, but my man page (Slackware 10.1) states:

Code:

-d home_dir
-g initial_group
-p password

which in my opinion implies that there should be spaces between the option and the value.

The examples on http://www.linuxpackages.net/howto/s.../usermgmt.html also uses the spaces.

John VV · 01-15-2009, 01:20 AM

i am assuming you are using gnome ??
why not use the gui
System / Administration / Users and Groups
click on the "Add User" button
http://img215.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_480lo.jpg
and fill in the form

your_shadow03 · 01-15-2009, 01:25 AM

-p <password> has some issue..I guess.
try using passwd <> to issue new password rather than insecure -p option

I tried :
passwd command and it went well

sheps126 · 01-16-2009, 08:50 AM

Thanks to everyone for their help!

I think Wim had the right idea - I think I needed to use spaces after each switch. Don't know why I didn't think of that?! I also skipped the password switch because it had to be encrypted first and then just set it afterwards. This particular box is constantly in run level 3, it's hosted on a virtual machine and I have no access, thus I added the user through the command line. Personally, even if I could use the GUI, I'd still use the terminal.

Thanks again guys!