GUI replacement for kuser? manage groups, users? [Solved]

[anomaly65]

Hi all,

Is there a replacement/substitute program for the old kuser management application? I run the kde edition of sabayon.

Had to re-install sabayon (very easy btw!!) due to mistake I made on root HD (bad cable....I sort of knew...).

Anyway, I don't use "userID" 1001 (install default) and simply copied over my backups of passwd, shadow, and have some common group permission issues (i.e. virtualbox won't run as my normal user....).'

I'm old enough to remember using vi to simply edit the files manually...no luck any more, and too old to care much too

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks,
andy

[Fitzcarraldo]

Well, there's the KDE 4 version of KUser (http://userbase.kde.org/KUser) but I haven't had the courage to try it due to bad press in early versions of KDE 4. Perhaps it works fine now, though.

Although it's not a GUI, I always use superadduser. It's DE-independent and works a treat. You can specify whatever UID (and other parameters) you want.

To install it:

Code: Select all

equo install superadduser

Here's an actual example when I added a user (who I named "mediacentre") to my nettop media centre running KDE a while back:

1. Find out which groups I belong to:

Code: Select all

$ groups
disk wheel floppy uucp cron audio cdrom dialout video games cdrw usb users haldaemon scanner plugdev entropy pulse-access pulse-rt pulse vboxusers crontab polkituser

2. Now log in as root user and run superadduser:

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$ su
Password:
# superadduser

Login name for new user []: mediacentre

User ID ('UID') [ defaults to next available ]:

Initial group [ users ]:

Additional groups (comma separated) []: disk,wheel,floppy,uucp,cron,audio,cdrom,dialout,video,games,cdrw,usb,haldaemon,scanner,plugdev,entropy,pulse-access,pulse-rt,pulse,vboxusers,crontab,polkituser

Home directory [ /home/mediacentre ]

Shell [ /bin/bash ]

Expiry date (YYYY-MM-DD) []:

New account will be created as follows:

---------------------------------------
Login name.......:  mediacentre
UID..............:  [ Next available ]
Initial group....:  users
Additional groups:  disk,wheel,floppy,uucp,cron,audio,cdrom,dialout,video,games,cdrw,usb,haldaemon,scanner,plugdev,entropy,pulse-access,pulse-rt,pulse,vboxusers,crontab,polkituser
Home directory...:  /home/mediacentre
Shell............:  /bin/bash
Expiry date......:  [ Never ]

This is it... if you want to bail out, hit Control-C.  Otherwise, press
ENTER to go ahead and make the account.


Creating new account...


Changing the user information for mediacentre
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
        Full Name []: mediacentre
        Room Number []:
        Work Phone []:
        Home Phone []:
        Other []:
New password:
Retype new password:
BAD PASSWORD: it is based on a dictionary word
passwd: password updated successfully


Account setup complete.

3. Now check if the new user was set up correctly by comparing the details with mine:

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# id mediacentre
uid=1001(mediacentre) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),6(disk),10(wheel),11(floppy),14(uucp),16(cron),18(audio),19(cdrom),20(dialout),27(video),35(games),80(cdrw),85(usb),411(haldaemon),441(scanner),442(plugdev),1003(pulse-access),1004(pulse-rt),1005(pulse),1009(vboxusers),1010(crontab),1000(entropy),1019(polkituser)
# id fitzcarraldo
uid=1000(fitzcarraldo) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),6(disk),10(wheel),11(floppy),14(uucp),16(cron),18(audio),19(cdrom),20(dialout),27(video),35(games),80(cdrw),85(usb),411(haldaemon),441(scanner),442(plugdev),1003(pulse-access),1004(pulse-rt),1005(pulse),1009(vboxusers),1010(crontab),1000(entropy),1019(polkituser)
#

All good.

[anomaly65]

thanks! Will get my mojo back in gear in no time. Perhaps I miss the days of just editing the file and it working.
cheers!

[anomaly65]

installed kuser "anyway" and it still works although a bit abandoned/clunky. Still miss "vi" or even "ed" (now that shows my real age...!!!) and don't care so much for the hidden stuff....

Not sure of the "bad press" for kde (I know the original history of the license debates...and the recent nokia $$ troubles), but the eye candy and everything else play very nicely.

100% personal preference of course, but gnome (and the apps?) still remind me too much of a c.1984 mac. Just a little too much "2d" given all the extra cpu/gpu cycles around. I always get a lot of "wow, what IS that?" questions if someone sees my laptop, desktop or I pop sabayon up on a projection screen though. guess I got bought off easily by all the eye candy

Definitely no intent to start a flame war (rather talk about politics, NOT!!), but both environments are mature enough to handle just about anyone's day to day DE needs.

I do seriously appreciate the sabayon community, clueful, polite, and all the yummy goodness I used to manually build out of gentoo, but a lot faster to install and deal with. Excellent distro!

[Fitzcarraldo]

I was referring to the bad press about KUser, not KDE (I have always used KDE on my main machine). As you wrote that KUser is working in KDE 4.9, I'll update the warning thread about KUser in the Beginners Area.

[anomaly65]

Thanks Fitzcarraldo,

yeah, seen bad press on the kuser thing too. It worked as (old time) advertised, no problems.

If you "su" and try to run it, you'll get an error

Code: Select all

# kuser
kuser(13435)/kdeui (kdelibs): Session bus not found
To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash)
export $(dbus-launch)
KCrash: Application 'kuser' crashing...
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib64/kde4/libexec/drkonqi from kdeinit
sock_file=/root/.kde4/socket-duuuude/kdeinit4__0
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib64/kde4/libexec/drkonqi directly
drkonqi(13436)/kdeui (kdelibs): Session bus not found
To circumvent this problem try the following command (with Linux and bash)
export $(dbus-launch)



thus

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# export $(dbus-launch)
# kuser


Works fine. No complaints here, although a very infrequent need (as mine was, to alter UIDs and groups in one quick stroke after a recovery install of the main OS).

Thanks,
andy