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I have a fresh version of Ubuntu 16.04.1 installed and have tried to create a new user account through root. I have changed the SHELL line in /etc/default/useradd to read as follows:

SHELL=/bin/bash

(it previously read /bin/sh)

Executing useradd -D provides the following output:

GROUP=100
HOME=/home
INACTIVE=-1
EXPIRE=
SHELL=/bin/bash
SKEL=/etc/skel
CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=no

I then try to create a user as follows:

useradd -m -G sudo -c "David Buckley" david

Yet the default shell is still /bin/sh. More specifically, the /etc/passwd file reads as follows:

david:x:1000:1000:David Buckley:/home/david:

On a slightly, potentially related note, the new user does not receive sudo access. It is given the groups david sudo, and the /etc/sudoers file includes the lines (uncommented):

# Allow members of group sudo to execute any command
sudo    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

What might I be doing wrong to cause this?

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  • Similar: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/258535/… – BowlOfRed Nov 5 '16 at 6:00
  • Thank you. I could not find this when searching for an answer. I clearly didn't try hard enough. Perhaps the questions can be merged? – Druckles Nov 5 '16 at 11:55
  • It may just be a copying error, but your "Allow members of group..." configuration line should begin %sudo not just sudo. – meuh Nov 5 '16 at 12:56
  • @Druckles the other question has been marked as a duplicate of this one (since this one has answers). – Stephen Kitt Nov 5 '16 at 16:06
  • @meuh Yeah, that was the problem. I think I'd tried to uncomment it out at some point in the night. Thanks for spotting it :-) – Druckles Nov 5 '16 at 20:26
5

Oddly enough, this happened to me too yesterday on a server running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

I have no concrete answer as to why this happens, but here is a quick solution that worked for me:
Don't use useradd, use adduser instead!

DESCRIPTION

adduser and addgroup add users and groups to the system according to command line options and configuration information in /etc/adduser.conf. They are friendlier front ends to the low level tools like useradd, groupadd and usermod programs, by default choosing Debian policy conformant UID and GID values, creating a home directory with skeletal configuration, running a custom script, and other features.

As for sudo, you have to log out that user — and then log back in — for the new group settings to have an effect.

Here's a good link on useradd vs adduser.

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  • @Stephen Kitt Thanks for the edit. I have to read up on how to format quoted text! – maulinglawns Nov 5 '16 at 9:58
  • The formatting applies in the same way as standard text inside a quoted block ;-). We need a nroff-to-SE converter for quoting manpages... – Stephen Kitt Nov 5 '16 at 10:00
  • Yeah, that would be helpful! Thanks again! – maulinglawns Nov 5 '16 at 10:01
  • The user has been logged in and out multiple times ;-). Perhaps the sudo issue is actually an unrelated problem after all. – Druckles Nov 5 '16 at 11:53
  • @Druckles That's odd. Perhaps it's best to ask a new question regarding this particular issue. – maulinglawns Nov 5 '16 at 12:09
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This is a known bug in Ubuntu's useradd (added by a Ubuntu-specific patch). It ignores all the settings specified in /etc/defaults/useradd...

The workaround, as indicated in maulinglawns' answer, is to use adduser instead, which is the recommended tool for adding non-system users in Debian derivatives.

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