[kde-linux] Re: Adding a user

[Duncan]

Wolfgang Mueller posted on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:11:04 +0200 as excerpted:

>> There are several ways.
>> If you want a UI, try KUser. It's exactly what you need to add and/or
>> edit users within a graphical interface.
> 
> Unfortunately I do not have KUser on my system.

It's often shipped as a separate package, which may not be installed by 
default.  Look for either kuser, or if that's not available, possibly 
kdeadmin (the name of the the kde-shipped monolithic tarball containing 
kuser and a number of other admin-type packages, so if you find and 
install this package, it'll have kuser and a few other apps too).

>> The other way is on CLI (Konsole) using "useradd" (see "man useradd).
> 
> This worked. Having removed the user I wanted to give access to KDE from
> /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow, I invoked useradd for restoring him.
> Afterwards his name appeared on the login screen.

The traditional CLI tools are often the best anyway, because sometimes 
these newfangled GUI things have bugs, and bugs when dealing with system-
level stuff like user account config can be rather NASTY!  (If a bug 
happens to screw /etc/passwd or the like, booting from a rescue disk or 
backup root partition may be necessary for recovery!  Nasty enough for
you?)

Bottom line, yeah, using the GUI is nice, but be sure you know how to do 
it manually as well, in case the GUI has a bug and doesn't work or worse, 
screws the system so you must recover the config using the CLI and/or 
manual tools, possibly from a rescue disk.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman