Please point me to web instructions for account administration for Red
Hat (I have two existing computers, and need to allow another to
login.) I will be logging in with root access over telnet.

Additionally a tip will be provided if you can show me a quick way to
verify the operating system - I'd like to confirm v6.2 and v8.0.

Thank you!

---

Clarification of Question by applecore-ga on 03 Jun 2004 06:26 PDT

Thank you for the suggestion parubok. When I try the 'useradd' command, I get:
bash: useradd: command not found

Should the command(s) be run from a different folder?

FYI, when I run the uname -a command, I get:
Linux pisces.xx.xx.xx 2.2.14-5.0 #1 Tue Mar 7 21:07:39 EST 2000 i686 unknown

and for less /proc/version
Linux version 2.2.14-5.0 (root@porky.devel.redhat.com) (gcc version egcs-2.91.66
 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2 release)) #1 Tue Mar 7 21:07:39 EST 2000
/proc/version (END)
Neither of those differentiates between Red Hat 6.2 and Red Hat 8, do they?
Thank you for your time,
-Brett

Hi Applecore,

I would guess the previous advice did not work for you because that
version of redhat doesn't include /usr/sbin on the standard path.
I have two redhat systems, and that is where "useradd" is on both of them.
One thing that might be important, depending on your default settings,
is to use the -s switch to specify the shell that the user will be
using (/bin/bash being the most common, in my experience).
Also, the -p switch allows you to set the password in the command
line, which is probably what you want.

So, to recap, you should do something like this:
/usr/sbin/useradd -s /bin/bash -p password username

If "useradd" is not in /usr/sbin, try typing:
whereis useradd

In general, the "whereis" command is quite helpful in circumstances like this.

Hope this solves your problem.
Take care,

Passive

---

Request for Answer Clarification by applecore-ga on 12 Jun 2004 19:19 PDT

I created the account (I think I created it, there were no errors). I
then su to that account, and it doesn't ask for a password. I try the
passwd command to see what's up, and when it asks
'(current) UNIX password', 
any password I enter gives 
'passwd: Authentication token manipulation error'

Long story short, I can't get it to work. On the RedHat 8.0 box.
Kernel 2.4.18-14 on an i686.

Any suggestions? Thank you.

---

Clarification of Answer by passive-ga on 13 Jun 2004 14:20 PDT

Hi Applecore,

I think I know what the problem is.
I had forgotten that when you give a password to the "useradd"
command, it expects it to be already encrypted.
To get around this, you can try creating the account without a
password, (omit the "-p password" part), and then type "passwd
username", and it will allow you to set the password. This must be
done as root.

Let me know if this works for you,

Passive

To add a user named user10:
groupadd user10
useradd  user10

To verify the kernel version:
uname -r
For more details:
uname -a
or
less /proc/version

Regards,
parubok

You have to have the useradd binary in your path.

In redhat 6.2 you do useradd from the command line, in 8 you can use
the redhat->system_settings->users_and_groups menu drilldown or the
command line.

Thank you bytecaptain. What do you mean to 'have the useradd binary in
your path'? Navigate to a different directory? Where is the useradd
binary.

Oh I figured out the bit about how to check the operating system. The
initial telnet prompt provides the OS & kernel version.