Linux – ArchLinux | Login password does not work after creating new user account

arch linuxnot-root-userrootuseraddusers

I am trying Arch Linux for learning more stuff faster and not having GUI that bothers me, so that I can focus on learning stuff from Linux itself and the terminal.
Since I was working with the default root@host I decided to create a new user.
After creting the new user with a password and a dedicated user folder I rebooted and then neither the password for the root nor the newly created user worked…
Maybe I did it wrong and don't understand how accounts work.

I used the following line to create the user in Arch.

useradd me -Umr -b /home -d /home/me -p newpass

Did I do something wrong or something? It seems i'm not able to login now from neither accounts.

My intention was to create a default user account that is not /root so that I am not always logged in as root user, so that when I boot up, the newly creted account pass is asked.

Best Answer

The -p parameter to useradd expects an encrypted password. It would be bad security practice to give a password in a command line. This is because every process on the system can read all command lines (except when using containers). So, the useradd command will not accept a plaintext password but force you to encrypt it before giving it as a parameter.

Set the password interactively afterwards:

passwd me

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Linux – How to set the password of a new user after the account has already been created

Easiest way to do this from the command line is to use the passwd command with root privileges.

passwd username

From man 1 passwd

NAME
       passwd - update user's authentication token
SYNOPSIS
       passwd  [-k]  [-l]  [-u [-f]] [-d] [-n mindays] [-x maxdays]
       [-w warndays] [-i inactivedays] [-S] [--stdin] [username]
DESCRIPTION
       The passwd utility is used to update user's authentication token(s).

After you set the user password, you can force the user to change it on next login using the chage command (also with root privileges) which expires the password.

chage -d 0 username

When the user successfully authenticates with the password you set, the user will automatically be prompted to change it. After a successful password change, the user will be disconnected, forcing re-authentication with the new password.

See man 1 chage for more information on password expiry.

Ubuntu – Changing root password does not change sudo password

You're changing root's password. sudo wants your user's password.

To change it, try plain passwd, without arguments or running it through sudo.

Alternately, you can issue:

$ sudo passwd <your username>

Best Answer

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Linux – How to set the password of a new user after the account has already been created

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