difficulties with creating user accounts, which is the best tool
 

Under Gnome, Mandrake 7.2

I have some problems knowing which of the user management tools
to use. I have three choices - kuser, userdrake, and userconf (?)

When I use userdrake, the account does not seem to allow 'startx'
properly - although I can copy across a valid .Xauthority file and then
it works

With kuser, the user is added to the grp '0' which makes it root-ish
but there seems to be no problem with startx

with userconf, this seems the best, but it is confusing as to what the
initial config will be.

I just want to know which tool is best for quickly creating a user that
will be able to startx without any config.

Also, how do I make a single user auto - startx on login?

Paragon

The best real way to add users is to just use the command, useradd.

man useradd for more options, details, etc.

And if your wanting a user to login to X automatically after logging in and don't want to change your runlevel to 5, just edit their .bash_login file and have it so it starts X from there, simply startx will work for the command.

Does your machine boot to a prompt or to a graphical logon screen? If already a graphical, you need to add the user with the gdm configurator. If no graphical startup and you want one, you need a desktop manager like xdm, gdm, or kdm. Since you are using Gnome, I'd suggest gdm. It'll allow your user to login graphically. (from a login prompt, you could always make an .Xsession file and put the command for starting Gnome, then startx will work - - or add to the users .xinitrc file)

I have tried the suggestions.

useradd and groupadd handle my user admin tasks well.

So far I have been unable to automatically start X when a user logs in.

(Have tried putting startx in .bash_login, .xinit, .xinitrc, .Xsession, .login
- none of which works)

Are there any other files that get run only when the initial login occurs, or
is there anyway to enable execution of .bash_login
I do not want to have a conditional statement in my .bashrc

Paragon

Aside from some minor troubles with $ useradd -D -g polski
and having to still specify $ useradd -g polski paragon2
I can now create and get rid of users at will.

My problem now is that I would really like to roll out a duplicate desktop
environment to my user "paragon1" for all of my new users. Changes I
have made include configuring the "footprint start menu", lowering the
number of workspaces, deleting drakconf from background, deleting
gnome control centre from panel.
What is the easiest way to duplicate one users "gnome" environment for
another user?

Paragon

If you copy all the relevant directories and files to /etc/skel and use the -m flag when doing your useradd it'll copy all the settings to the new users home directory, as for which specific files/diretories you need I'm not 100% sure, ls -a in the user you have now home dir and see what looks related i.e gnome gnome2 gconf desktop etc.

Trial and error I guess until someone points out the exact files.

Ok, I will give that a whirl. Will tar what is already there first though.
(As I do not want to lose the defaults for some old users.)

Will post the list of files if I discover which combination works.