Useradd not creating home directory when creating newuser

meneedham · 10-04-2007, 03:31 PM

When we are using useradd to create new user accounts in Ubuntu we are not getting a home directory created at time of creation or the home directory is not accessible.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Dinithion · 10-04-2007, 04:12 PM

With useradd you have to manualy enter the home directory to be created. If none is specified, none is created. Read 'man useradd' for more information.
Try using adduser. It's a bit more user friendly, sudo adduser <username>. That automaticly adds directory and ask you for password, realname etc.

MoonMind · 10-04-2007, 04:17 PM

Could you describe your exact procedure in more detail? It's not too hard to correct the problems you're reporting, but maybe there's something even easier to correct...

M.

Edit:
Okay, Dinithion's tip's doing the trick anyway, so there's no need for a follow-up - well, if it works, anyway... (I hope there's nothing else going wrong).

Kahless · 10-04-2007, 10:06 PM

if you give the -m flag, useradd will take care of creating the home directory for you.

instead of doing:

useradd <username>

do

useradd -m <username>

Btw... if you want to deleate a user (say, to try again) just deleate their entire line form /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow

Good luck

For more detail, see

man useradd

meneedham · 10-05-2007, 12:11 PM

I will have several more questions later I am sure. You folks are great. I will let you know how it goes.