Ubuntu Wiki

How to Add Users

Here we will discuss adding users to your Ubuntu system. When you first install Ubuntu you have to setup one user account. In the future you may wish to set up more accounts for other users or other accounts for yourself. This will be a brief how-to for setting up users.

There are two ways to add a user. You can use the graphical tool, located in Computer > System Configuration > Users and Groups or use the command-line. Doing it graphically is easier, the command-line more powerful, especially if you want to add more than one user.

Graphical Users and Groups tool

Location: Computer > System Configuration > Users and Groups

attachment:UserConfigPic.png

Press + Add User, the window on the left-side will open. The minimum requirements are Username and password. For the Username, do not use spaces, and do use ASCII characters. On the User privileges tab, add privileges that the new user will have access to, such as use audio devices.

attachment:UserConfigPic2.png

Command-line

To add a user you must use the sudo command (for an explanation of what that means, see the RootSudo page)

This is how to add a user.

    sudo adduser <username>

Note: do not use the useradd command.

To see the options for adding a user try the man command.

    man adduser

You might also wish to create a new group for your users.

    sudo addgroup <groupname>

To add a new user to a existing group you would do this:

    sudo adduser <username> audio

To add an existing user to an existing group you can use the same command:

    sudo adduser <username> <groupname>

This would add <username> to the audio group.

I hope this page was helpful; if you would like to add to it, feel free.

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