Changing primary group on a user

linuxeth123 · 05-18-2010, 08:25 AM

Does anyone know how to change the primary group on a user without changing the password? I've tried updating the /etc/passwd and running usermod -g group user

Both of those does change the group but somehow it messes up the password so the user cannot get in with the same password.

grail · 05-18-2010, 09:01 AM

Well one would say that manually changing the passwd file is never a good idea.
I have not heard of usermod performing any alteration to a users passwd.

have you performed only the usermod step alone to see if it still causes an issue?

linuxeth123 · 05-18-2010, 09:26 AM

Yea I know it's not a good idea to update the passwd file. I did the usermod first but either way it's not allowing the user to log in with their password.

grail · 05-18-2010, 09:31 AM

Do you have the option to create a test account to try the same thing?
I changed mine twice without any issue.

Perhaps the user didn't remember their password correctly??

linuxeth123 · 05-18-2010, 09:40 AM

Yea does the same thing. Any idea where I can look to see why the password would change?

grail · 05-18-2010, 09:53 AM

Not that I can think of, hopefully someone else will be able to help.

Out of curiosity,

1. which distro ?
2. Does the group exist?
3. Are you performing as root or using sudo?
4. i notice you are posting from Windows, is there a reason not from linux box?