I installed the latest version of Ubuntu (13.04, Raring Tail) on a machine at home to check it out (it was running CentOS 6.4 before that). Setting it up was quite simple, but I am not sure if I like the too simple UI. I don’t want an uber-geek only-shell mode, but the CentOS I thought was the right balance.
Anyways, when I first added a new user, there was no way I could set a password which was very weird - not a permanent or temporary one! And there is no way one can then login. I don’t think this is user error, but then if it is a bug, it seems like a big one!
So I had to deleted the user and then added them back (via the shell sudo adduser user-name-you-want command) and then set the password. If you want to change the password, you can also use passwd user-name-you-want in a shell).
But the most irritating part of this was adding the new user to have root access. It took me a little time to figure out. But in the end it turns our the root (or su) group is called “sudo” and it is part of this group that the new user needs to be in if they need root access.
To modify an existing user, you use the following command in the shell sudo usermod -g sudo user-name-you-want where of course sudo is the group name.
Now, we got there in the end, but why does it have to be so painful like pulling teeth! If this is supposed to be easy for the average user, surely they are missing a trick.