Problems adding users (YES, I read the FAQ)

PiperTex · n00b Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Richmond, TX

I recently installed Gentoo on my system, and am having problems adding a regular user. Following the instructions in the FAQ (and as found elsewhere while searching for an answer to this problem) I created the user with:

useradd <username> -m -G users,audio,wheel -s /bin/bash
chown <username> -R /home/<username>

However, when I try to log onto the new account, I get a message:
-bash: /home/<username>/.bash_profile: Permission denied
... and when I logout of the account, I get:
-bash: /home/<username>/.bash_logout: Permission denied
I executed ls -la on the home directory, and I have a .bash_profile, but there is no .bash_logout, ether. This reflects what is in /etc/skel.

I'm confused and befuddled. I have used other distributions (RedHat, SuSE, and Debian) for several years, but have never run into a problem like this.

Any ideas?

scruff · Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 1:28 am Post subject:

Try running 'cat /etc/passwd' to make sure your user has been added properly. Then, I always do the chown command like 'chown -R scruff /home/scruff' and it works fine. I am not sure if it makes a difference, but you are putting the username before the recursive option where I am not.

Why are you trying to do chown anyway? Is this a /home directory created from another distro/install? If that is the case (and your username is the same), you could just create your new user with the same UID as the last distro and you shouldn't have to do the chown.

emerge superadduser if you would like an easier tool for creating accounts. It is exactly like Slackware's useradd and much simpler IMO.
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pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

What are the permissions on the home directory of the user?
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PiperTex · n00b Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Richmond, TX

First of all, thanks for the replies.

In /etc/passwd, the user looks like:
hcblassin:x:1003:100::/home/hcblassin:/bin/bash

I emerge'd superadduser and tried add a new user with that, but still had the same results.

The permissions on the home directory look like:
drwx--x--x 2 hcblassin users 136 Apr 24 17:39 hcblassin

and the contents look like:
drwx--x--x 2 hcblassin users 136 Apr 24 17:39 .
drwxrw-r-- 3 root root 104 Apr 24 18:06 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 hcblassin users 232 Apr 25 08:51 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 hcblassin users 812 Apr 25 08:51 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 hcblassin users 1466 Apr 25 08:51 .tcsh.config

Rainmaker · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 12:17 am Post subject:

if you login as the newly created user, what does the command "groups" give you?

serzz · Apprentice Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 153

have you changed new user's password with #passwd user ?

PiperTex · n00b Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Richmond, TX

PiperTex · n00b Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Richmond, TX

I just tried again with a different username, and got the same results. I thought perhaps there was something funky (trailing space, or >8 chars) with the original, but that was not the case.

fdamstra · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 1:06 pm Post subject:

Just a thought, but what are the permissions on the actual /home directory?

Do a:
# ls -d /home

scruff · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 1:12 pm Post subject:

Log in as your user and before starting X, do 'echo $HOME'

I think your path is set incorectly.

scruff · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 1:16 pm Post subject:

I dunno.... I think I misread that error message. It does seem to look in /home/username first...

Try the echo command anyway, and for the hell of it give us a ls -la of / , /home , /home/username.

This is bugging me now. It all looks fine from your previous posts.

Post your fstab too. It might be the way you set that up.
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Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum
200gb Maxtor DiamondMax 10
74gb WD Raptor 10k RPM

jkt · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 3:03 pm Post subject:

`chmod 755 /home`?

furkan · Guru Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 520 Location: Montreal CA

try those

PiperTex · n00b Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Richmond, TX

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who replied ot my post, and offered their help.

My problem seems to be fixed, but I had to go the long way around to get to it

. My hard drive died completely, and would not boot. I had to install a new drive, and then re-install. For some reason (perhaps something wrong on the old drive, or something I missed during install on the old drive) everything works fine now.

groover · n00b Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 38

Hello.

I've got absolutely the same problem...
I create a user groover:

dmitri · n00b Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 20

Check your permissions on /

See this thread for more info.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=1207156
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groover · n00b Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 38

Thanks a lot!

That's it :)

Mark
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