Hi all, not a newbie but this one is confusing.

New install of OpenSuse 10 with all the happy patches.
Two basic users other than root (user A and user B). Both users are assigned the bash shell. Both users .bashrc and .profile are identical (generic with no manual changes).

I copied /etc/profile to /etc/profile.org just to be safe. I then edited the /etc/profile for some alias preferences that I like to use.

When starting a teminal session for user A, it seems as if the /etc/profile is not being read and my aliases won't work. The typical (command not found) message is sent to stdout.

When starting a terminal session for user B, the /etc/profile is read and the aliases work fine.

I've hunted for a couple of hours now and can't find any clues as to why this is acting the way it is.

Thanks in advance

This sort of thing is often caused by a typo, or having two definitions and the second one is used. Not this time, according to your description.

Check the group of the two users and the particulars in /etc/passwd about home directory and shell. There must be some difference.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any differences between the two users. The applicable files are all generic with the exception of the /etc/profile itself.

No differences in:
.bashrc
.bash_profile
.profile

Same files for both:
/etc/profile (only one obviously)
Same group membership
Same /etc/passwd shell

Missing:
no .profile.local
no other .***hrc files in the home dirs

I thought this might have something to do with either X or KDE. No love there either. Everything matches that is supposed to match for both users. Nothing unusual or even related to /etc/profile in any of the graphical stuff. I even tried things out with run level 3 just to make sure. Same problem.

This has to be some simple little thing somewhere but I'll be damned if I can find it. I'm using a workaround for the crippled user with a "source /etc/profile" at the end of the .bashrc for now until I can figure out what the real problem is.

Beats me... Some distros ask for an almost ordinary user at installation time. Could A be the one? I do not know the mechanism, but I think they allow that special user special privileges. Try logging these guys in from the console ctrl-alt-F1 and F2. That will cut out the GUI thing.

Nope, virtual terminals don't make any difference. I created both users during the OS installation and they were identical in every way except for the name of course.

I've been a SysAdmin for 11 years now and even asked the guys at work. None of us have a clue.

Anyway, thanks for the responses. I'll just stick with my workaround which is clumsy but effective.

Thanks