How to properly re-establish users after a reinstall?

[Lisa Kachold]

Call me 503-754-4452

On 4/22/09, Josef Lowder <joe at actionline.com> wrote:
> I gave up trying to fix the problems and just did a totally fresh
> reinstall both hda5 and hda7.
>
> But that still didn't solve all the problems.
> What is so frustrating is that everything was working perfectly on
> this system until I tried to install Virtual Box and that royally
> screwed up everything.
>
> So now, even with a clean fresh new installation of the same system
> from the same media as before ... I still have several problems that I
> never had before ... even after reformatting both partitions and
> reinstalling (several times).
>
> Now Firefox won't start and wireless doesn't work on my router, though
> it does work on my neighbor's router.  Two other systems in my
> home/office do work via wireless on my router.  Both Firefox and
> wireless worked fine in the original installation (which Virtual Box
> wrecked).
>
> Go figure.
>
> I've reinstalled Firefox several times, even totally removing all
> traces of it and reinstalling.
> Still can't get it to work.  All the files seem to be there the same
> as on one of my other systems with the exact same installation.
>
> Sure hope somebody can help me solve this.  I've only been working on
> this off and on for two weeks.
>
> joe
>
> On 4/21/09, Charles Jones <charles.jones at ciscolearning.org> wrote:
>> * waits for Hans to suggest using RCS *  :-)
>>
>>
>>  Lisa Kachold wrote:
>>  > Learning to edit systems files is an advanced process.
>>  >
>>  > While I never limit my teaching to a dumbed down level, with "NEVER"
>>  > admonishments, I did not give you the "safety net rap" reserved for
>>  > the best and brightest fledgling systems people:
>>  >
>>  > "ALWAYS copy any systems file you edit to backup before changes".
>>  >
>>  > cp /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.$me
>>  >
>>  > Once the changes are complete and written off as "all good" be sure to
>>  > delete all files with .$me {a cron can be setup to do this}.
>>  >
>>  > Alternately, systems people setup a quick bash tool that will copy it
>>  > to $DATE, since they will be editing a great many files a day and need
>>  > to be able to see what happened when.
>>  >
>>  > Editing /etc/passwd is simple, but if you are not sure, delete and
>>  > setup your user using command line adduser:
>>  >
>>  > useradd - Create a new user or update default new user information
>>  > SYNOPSIS
>>  >
>>  > useradd [-c comment] [-d home_dir]
>>  >
>>  >     [-e expire_date] [-f inactive_time]
>>  >     [-g initial_group] [-G group[,...]]
>>  >     [-m [-k skeleton_dir] | -M] [-n] [-o] [-p passwd] [-r]
>>  >     [-s shell] [-u uid] login
>>  > useradd -D [-g default_group] [-b default_home]
>>  >
>>  >     [-e default_expire_date] [-f default_inactive]
>>  >     [-s default_shell]
>>  >
>>  > On 4/20/09, Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com> wrote:
>>  >
>>  >> On Mon, 2009-04-20 at 19:53 -0700, Lisa Kachold wrote:
>>  >>
>>  >>> Looks like your /home partition was being equated as /hda7 - which
>> makes
>>  >>> sense.
>>  >>>
>>  >>> umount /dev/hda7
>>  >>> mkdir /home
>>  >>> mount -t ext3 (or whatever it is) /dev/hda7 /home
>>  >>> df -k
>>  >>> vi /etc/passwd
>>  >>> ls -al ~joe
>>  >>> ls -al ~pattie
>>  >>>
>>  >>>
>>  >>> You can change the mount point via /etc/fstab
>>  >>> You can change the users home via /etc/passwd
>>  >>> Be sure to chown/chgrp all the files to their corresponding users
>>  >>>
>>  >>> cd ~joe | chown -R joe:joe *
>>  >>> cd ~pattie | chown -R pattie:pattie *
>>  >>>
>>  >> ----
>>  >> just a comment...I don't generally recommend to people to directly
>>  >> edit /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/shadow (even with vi) just because
>>  >> the problems caused by a careless edit are truly vexing. Perhaps that
>> is
>>  >> one way people can learn but it is not the thing to do for the most
>>  >> users.
>>  >>
>>  >> Craig
>>  >>
>>  >>
>>  >> --
>>  >> This message has been scanned for viruses and
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>>  >>
>>
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