Adding Users in openSUSE Linux 11.2

Users can be managed several ways in openSUSE. One of these methods uses YaST, the management and configuration platform that openSUSE, SLES and SLED use by default. In the writing we’ll walk you thought setting up a user and a group, in openSUSE using YaST and using the command line options. First things first, lets show the power of YaST and it’s ability to easily add a user to your system.

Launch openSUSE. Here’s an example of the icon in KDE, which can be found under Menu –> System –> Administrator Settings

Once launched you’ll be asked for the root password, enter the root password and YaST will launch. From here you’ll go to Security and Users in the left hand pane, and User and Group Management within the right hand pane (hint: You can do a search for User in the search box above the left hand pane, to find the correct module to load).

Within the User and Group Administration Modules, you’ll click on Add to bring up the New Local User Dialog, where you’ll insert the:
User’s Full Name
Username
Password
Confirm Password
Additionally you can set the user to Recieve System Notification and / or Disable User Login

(Note:for best practice it’s good to use a secure password, which is at least 6 characters, and uses 3 of the 4 character sets (Numbers, Lower Case Letters, Upper Case Letters and Symbols)).

Also within the New Local User configuration screen, you can setup user Details, Password Settings and apply required / wanted Plug-Ins. Here’s some shots of those screens

Once you’re done and you click on Ok, you’ll be brought back to the User and Group Administration module, where you’ll see your newly created user.

To add a user via the command line, you can simply do:

That will create the user freetechie and also create the users home directory (and since it wasn’t defined explicitly with -d /home/directory it’ll grab the defaults which can be found in /etc/default/useradd).

Here’s the default contents of /etc/default/useradd:

Lastly, if you’re looking for more information on useradd, you can check out the man page, and find some information on the basic configuration, here’s a quick run down of their switces from the said man page