configuring new users
 

I have an ubuntu 8.04 running on my pc. I have more or less exclusive use of my pc. My first uid was defined during install just recently and has admin privileges; I have also defined two others for my own use with lesser privileges. I'd like to define one or two more uids, not for me, but for other users of my pc as well.

What I want is to get the uids desktops to appear and behave as closely as possible to that of the admin one. My cli for the lesser uids, for instance, behave differently from that of the admin one. The prompts are different; there is no autocmplete feature, the up/down keys behave differently, etc. What's the easiest way to have a common set of features for the cli for all users I defined on my pc/ubuntu?

What about the general appearance of the desktop? Icons, launchers, etc. As I said, I'd like just about all of them to look the same -- at least at the beginning. Do I have to configure them manually whenever I add a new user? Or is there a feature that can "automagically" produce a consistent appearance for all users in ubuntu 8.04, i.e. a different default appearance/configuration than what I am getting now?

TIA

For default configurations, edit the config files in /etc. Note: programs will often look there for a default but create their own user default if there is no config file - so a config file won't necessarily exist until you create it. The names of the config files depends on the particular software it configures of course ...

You may also consider an /etc/user_defaults directory which has a collection of config files to be copied to a user's HOME when the user is created. You might also copy and modify the 'adduser' script (call it something else and put it in /usr/local/sbin) so that default users are added to the appropriate groups, config files are copied, etc etc etc.

Thanks pinniped.

Your suggestions are good, but probably way beyond what I can do. I am new to Linux/ubuntu. Very. I may be asking too much, perhaps?

This is what bugs me: the cli of the non-admin users I have defined -- I can't use the up/down arrow to retrieve the previous commands I have given. I can do it if I am logged on as admin, but not as a non-admin user.

I am hoping I can copy something from the .bashrc of the admin user, but I don't know what it is. I did see that the admin user has a .profile whereas the non-admin users don't.

The prompts in the cli for the admin and non-admin users differ as well.

Right now, I'd be happy if I can get these features -- the same prompts to appear and the ability to retrieve previous commands with the up/down arrow keys -- in the cli of non-admin users. And I hope these are simple codes.

Thanks

Maybe each user simply has to create the file (I don't know if it's created when the file doesn't exist):

cd
touch .bash_history

If that doesn't work, try:
set -o history -- if this works then you need to add this line to .bashrc