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Legacy Forums => Experienced User Forum => Topic started by: scott on September 24, 2003, 04:52:10 AM

Title: can't create user account
Post by: scott on September 24, 2003, 04:52:10 AM
I got the following error when trying to create a user account:
Error: the account "dude" can't be created because there is already a user-deleted account of that name.

I did have an account by this name and it got corrupted.  How can I remove the corrupted accuount and create a new one?  Thanks.
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Terry on September 24, 2003, 04:59:59 AM
Search for user-deleted, deleted user, delete user.  Been asked and answered many times.
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: scott on September 24, 2003, 06:11:00 AM
I did do a search and was not able to fix the problem by using any of these techniques.
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Terry on September 24, 2003, 02:27:21 PM
Ummm, ok, guess some people need to be spoon fed:

http://www.e-smith.org/bboard/search.php?search=user-delete&f=0&match=1&date=0&fldsubject=1&fldbody=1
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Anti Terry on September 24, 2003, 03:27:52 PM
No need for that Terry.....One day you'll need help!
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Terry on September 24, 2003, 04:24:20 PM
I need help all the time.  But I do search 1st, and when told what to search for it makes it even easier.  The link I posted is from the 1st 2 words I mentioned to search for (search=user-delete), not my fault if he isn't bright enough to select "All Dates".
Kids these days...
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Adserg on September 24, 2003, 05:24:03 PM
LOL...

Ya old git...
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Joe on September 24, 2003, 05:59:35 PM
I agree with Terry this question has been asked so many times a quick, and with Linux I dont think no-one could know everything as there are soo many commands
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: scott on September 24, 2003, 06:33:20 PM
If you read my last message posted you would see that I did the search and I tried the suggestions, but none of them fixed the problem.  Once again I did a search on all the terms you suggested and found a bunch of possible solutions.  Unfortunately, none of these solutions fixed the problem this time either.  

I think the account is corrupt or something.  It doesn't show up on the system as being a valid account, but if I log into webmail as this user I can send and receive email.  I can also connect with ssh under this username.

If anyone has any other suggestions, please, let me know.  Thanks.
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Terry on September 24, 2003, 07:10:20 PM
See, now that is clear.  That's not what you said in your second post.  
Did you follow those same commands that Howard Bloom used in his posts, cause he just went off typing anything.  I've never had a problem with /sbin/e-smith/db accounts delete removing a deleted account on my 5.5 or 5.6 systems.  Guess I should try it on my 6.0 system and see if it's still valid.
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Terry on September 24, 2003, 10:22:09 PM
Just created a user, reset the password, then deleted the user on my 6.0 Service Link enabled box.  I was able to recreate a user of the same name *without* doing anything else.  Maybe this has been changed in version 6.

Terry
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: scott on September 24, 2003, 11:49:49 PM
No, I don't think it is an issue with the version.  I can add, remove and readd other accounts without a problem.  Something has been corrupted or something.  I just noticed if I ssh in with the messed up account, some of the keys on the keyboard no longer work.  Somehow the user config or profile got hosed.  I can no longer use the bash shell while connected with this account.  I can use csh though.  Something is very wrong.Terry wrote:
>
> Just created a user, reset the password, then deleted the
> user on my 6.0 Service Link enabled box.  I was able to
> recreate a user of the same name *without* doing anything
> else.  Maybe this has been changed in version 6.
>
> Terry
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Michiel on September 25, 2003, 12:17:54 AM
Could you post the entries for your funny user from the following two files:
/etc/passwd
/home/e-smith/accounts

(not the complete files, just the lines for that user :-)
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: scott on September 25, 2003, 12:33:32 AM
scott:x:5000:5000:joe blow:/home/e-smith/files/users/scott:/bin/csh
joe.blow=pseudonym|Account|director
joe_blow=pseudonym|Account|directorMichiel wrote:
>
> Could you post the entries for your funny user from the
> following two files:
> /etc/passwd
> /home/e-smith/accounts
>
> (not the complete files, just the lines for that user :-)
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Michiel on September 25, 2003, 02:59:05 AM
> scott:x:5000:5000:joe blow:/home/e-smith/files/users/scott:/bin/csh
> joe.blow=pseudonym|Account|director
> joe_blow=pseudonym|Account|director

This tells you that e-smith doesn't know about user scott (no entry in /home/e-smith/accounts), but Linux still does. Run "userdel scott" and I bet everything is back to normal. If that command fails, just delete that line manually from /etc/passwd (or comment it out with #).

Let us know if this solved your problem.

BTW, the pseudonyms point to user "director", not "scott". Does account "director"  exist?

Michiel
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: scott on September 25, 2003, 03:21:45 AM
Yes sir, that fixed it.  Thank you very much.
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: scott on September 25, 2003, 06:14:08 PM
I take that last message back.  It put my account back into server-manager, but my bash shell is still messed up.  In order to fix this I deleted the account from server-manager and recreated it.  It works now.  Unfortunately, I lost my email.  I am not sure if I should restore it from backup because the config files are also restored and it may screw up the account again.scott wrote:
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Michiel on September 25, 2003, 06:51:30 PM
> and recreated it.  It works now.  Unfortunately, I lost my
> email.  I am not sure if I should restore it from backup

Just restore the following files from your backup and everything should be back in place:
/home/e-smith/files/user/scott/Mail
/home/e-smith/files/user/scott/Maildir
/home/e-smith/files/user/scott/home

You might also have to reset the ownership of these files:
chown -R scott:scott /home/e-smith/files/user/scott

M
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Terry Werry on November 05, 2003, 08:16:53 PM
Terry Youre a bloody Idiot Mate!
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: Michiel on November 05, 2003, 11:56:26 PM
> Terry Youre a bloody Idiot Mate!

I'm not going to contradict you on this one ;-) But what made you come to this conclusion?
Title: can't create user account
Post by: Anonymous on May 12, 2004, 11:33:45 AM
cool. this fixed it for me too:).
Title: Re: can't create user account
Post by: terencem on July 04, 2005, 11:22:32 AM
Quote from: "Michiel"
> You might also have to reset the ownership of these files:
chown -R scott:scott /home/e-smith/files/user/scott

M


Just in case someone is reading this thread later, and wonders why that command doesn't work... it should be "users" as in "/home/e-smith/files/users/scott".  

Anyway, thanks to Michiel for all his great work.