new user, weird shell

Shwick · 12-17-2008, 10:05 PM

I created a new user, l4d1, then logged into it with "su l4d1". What is with the new shell? It's just a question mark "?", no command completion or command history.

The l4d1 user doesn't have a password and can only be logged into with "su l4d1".

shanecraddock@gmail.com · 12-18-2008, 12:11 AM

sounds like the user wasn't defined correctly during creation.. if you're signed in as root type pico /etc/passwd and make sure the users shell is /bin/bash (or whatever the path to bash is on your particular distro), also if your signed in as root you can type chsh username to change the shell from there.. set it to bash (type "which bash" as root to get the absolute path)

brianL · 12-18-2008, 04:03 AM

Did you use adduser or useradd? adduser is simpler and interactive. Read the relevant man pages for the differences.

ozminh · 12-18-2008, 05:01 AM

change a user's passwd:
'passwd'

hasanatizaz · 12-18-2008, 05:08 AM

instead of "su l4d1"
you should use "su - l4d1"
so that user directory would also be inherited.
also do
echo $SHELL and post the output.

merixon · 12-19-2008, 04:04 AM

If you look at the /etc/passwd file, what shell is defined for that user?

// Mike