Debian – How to add a user to a group

debiangroupraspbianusers

How do I add a user to a group.

This is on a system with no root password and only a single user pi with sudo privileges.

usermod seems to have been designed to make this as difficult as possible.

Best Answer

You can use usermod or edit the group file directly

# usermod -a -G ${group} ${user}

# vi /etc/group
...
wheel:x:10:root,user1,user2
...

Just remember group changes do not always propagate to active sessions. If you are changing a user who is currently logged in (including yourself), they must logout and login again for the change to take effect. (Under some circumstances a reboot may be required. Check id after logging in again to see if the new group is present.)

Related Solutions

User created without a password behaves as if he had one

A user is created by default as a locked account. The field that should contain the password hash in /etc/shadow will contain !!. When an account is locked, that account is available to root only (root can su but logins aren't allowed). If you 'unlock' the account which simply removes the !! you will be allowed to change the password.

[root@test ~]# su - test
[test@test ~]$ passwd
Changing password for user test.
Changing password for test.
(current) UNIX password:
[test@test ~]$ exit
logout
[root@test ~]# passwd -u test
Unlocking password for user test.
passwd: Warning: unlocked password would be empty.
passwd: Unsafe operation (use -f to force)
[root@test ~]# passwd -u test -f
Unlocking password for user test.
passwd: Success
[root@test ~]# su - test
[test@test ~]$ passwd
Changing password for user test.
New password:

Bash – dialout group missing

In Debian, the default groups are set up by base-passwd; the dialout group should always be present. If it isn't, you can use update-passwd to restore the expected configuration:

sudo update-passwd

(this will restore the system and user groups, but won't modify anything else).

You simply need to add your user to the group:

sudo adduser $(whoami) dialout

Best Answer

Related Solutions

User created without a password behaves as if he had one

Bash – dialout group missing

Related Question