No home directory, logging in with HOME=/

linux useradd

51,205

Solution 1

You forgot a parameter:

-m, --create-home             create the dummy's home directory

Are you sure you set the correct owner and permission to the directory?

$ ls -ld /home dummy
drwx------ dummy dummy ........... dummy

$ chown dummy:dummy /home/dummy
$ chmod 700 /home/dummy

If you've already files in the directory, add an extra -R to both commands.

Solution 2

To avoid such mistakes, you should use the perl script adduser that comes with ubuntu. It's a wrapper around useradd that helps you to perform the operation in a wizard style ->[source]...

51,205

Novice User

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Novice User almost 2 years
Created a new user in Ubuntu 11.04 using:
```
$ useradd -d /home/dummy -m dummy
```
Now, after this I set its password using passwd dummy, but when I login to that user using su - dummy. I get the message:

No home directory, logging in with HOME=/

If I check the user account dummy's entry in /etc/passwd:
```
 $ cat /etc/passwd | grep dummy
dummy:x:1001:1001::/home/dummy:/bin/bash**
```
I manually created the directory to resolve this issue through mkdir /home/dummy.

Now, the error seems to be resolved, but I'm amazed as to why no files like bash_profile are created in that home directory.
- phemmer about 12 years
  
  What is the question?
- manatwork about 12 years
  
  Do you have anything in /etc/skel?
- phemmer about 12 years
  
  @manatwork having anything in /etc/skel wont matter if he created the directory with mkdir. /etc/skel is only used when something like useradd creates it.
- fpmurphy about 12 years
  
  What is the output of useradd -D
- Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' about 12 years
  
  -m means the home directory should have been created and populated from /etc/skel. What happens if you create another user? Check what useradd is doing. Are you seeing any message? If you can't find anything, post the output of strace useradd -d /home/test1 -m test1.
Mat about 12 years

-m is present in the command, look closely.
jippie about 12 years

I stand corrected.
Mikel about 12 years

-m is shown in the question, but then OP still had to run mkdir? I think some information is missing. Maybe there was an error. Or maybe OP ran useradd without -m the first time.