[clue-tech] create account

[Jed S. Baer]

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:22:06 -0600
Bob Meetin wrote:

> I edited the /etc/vfstab file, copied a line and changed the numbers, 
> something like:
> 
> bobm:x:1002:1002::/home/bobm:/bin/sh
> 
> I presume the encryped passwd is stored elsewhere.  At Sun in UNIX it 
> was the /etc/shadow and the next step was to run something like pwconv, 
> but I don't remember.  I created a home directory and chown to me:
> 
> mkdir /home/bobm
> chown bobm bobm
> 
> Do I do a sudo or su to bobm?
> 
> /home# su - bobm
> su: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
> (Ignored)
> 
> Despite the error this worked, however not sure how to set a new
> password. 
> 
> Exited and switched back to root and Tried:
> 
> passwd bobm
> Changing password for bobm.
> (current) UNIX password:
> passwd: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
> passwd: password unchanged
> 
> Something is up??? 

Well, typically, you'd use the useradd command to add a user. This will
have all sorts of advantages, such as copying in the skeleton rc files,
optionally creating a group for the user, setting the group membership,
and updating the shadow files.

But if you want to do it by hand, you can check the following man pages:

jbaer at robinson:~$ man -k conv | grep shad
grpconv (8)          - convert to and from shadow passwords and groups
grpunconv (8)        - convert to and from shadow passwords and groups
pwconv (8)           - convert to and from shadow passwords and groups
pwunconv (8)         - convert to and from shadow passwords and groups

I think if I were in your shoes, I'd just undo what I've done, and go
with useradd.

jed