Adding user accounts

Updated 12 March 2020

Contents

Users

When you have installed Calculate Linux Desktop, the user present on the system by default is guest. Use this user account to become familiar with the system.

The guest password can be changed at any moment using the passwd command. Remote access (via the ssh protocol) is only allowed for root.

Adding a user

Permissions to system devices are defined using groups. For example, you can restrict access to CD / DVD-drive, sound card, scanner or even games. To add the necessary access rights, add the user in the corresponding system groups.

For security reasons, root is not allowed to work in a graphical environment. Therefore, you have to switch to the command line by hitting Ctrl + Alt + F1 when you need to manage accounts. Enter root++ to the login prompt and then the password. Now run the following:

useradd --create-home --groups users,wheel,audio,cdrom,video,cdrw,usb,plugdev,games,lp,lpadmin,scanner,uucp [HTML_REMOVED]

passwd [HTML_REMOVED]

Replace [HTML_REMOVED] with any string of Latin letters and numbers.

Note

Whenever you add a user account, do not create a home directory for them. When a user logs in for the first time, it is created automatically based on the user's customized template.

In the example above, you create a user with access rights to several groups:

  • users - provides access for the network manager;
  • wheel - allows to get superuser privileges with the su command;
  • audio - gives access to the sound card;
  • cdrom - to the CD/DVD drive,
  • video - to the TV tuner;
  • cdrw - allows to write to CD/DVD media;
  • usb - gives access to mp3 players, Flash drives, or else to USB volumes in VirtualBox;
  • plugdev - allows to mount USB media;
  • games - makes gaming accessible;
  • scanner - enables to scan documents;
  • lp, lpadmin - gives access to a printer or a MFP-integrated scanner;
  • uucp - allows to use a modem.

To return to the graphical password prompt, exit the session with the exit command, or by hitting Ctrl + D. To return to the graphical session, press Alt + F7.

Editing access privileges

To add the newly created user to the group, use gpasswd. Example: add a user to the games group:

gpasswd -a [HTML_REMOVED] games

The group access rights are stored in /etc/group.

Transferring users

Should you install or reinstall Calculate Linux from a running Linux system, all users will be copied to the new system with their access rights. It will only be necessary to re-assign passwords to them using the passwd utility, as described above.