On 24/08/2025 22:34, David Christensen wrote:On 8/24/25 13:14, Van Snyder wrote:
I keep my /home directory in a partition separate from root, not in a
directory in root. This makes it easier to install a new OS.
When I install Debian, it asks me for the name of a user.
I never had the courage to put my own name and uname into that page,
fearing it might damage my home directory.
I create a "more" user, then log into that account, su to root, and add
myself using the "Users" widget in KDE (I assume there's something
similar in gnome), change my uid and gid in /etc/passwd* and
/etc/group*, then delete the "more" user.
Just to make sure the installer doesn't damage /home/me, and to make it
obvious it won't, if /home/* isn't an empty list, the installer should
provide a checkbox list to select the ones that should be added to
/etc/passwd* and /etc/group* with uid and gid taken from /home/*.
It would also be nice if it would ask "are there backup /etc/passwd*
and /etc/group* from which those users info ought to be added to
/etc/passwd* and /etc/group*?" That way, users wouldn't need to re-
enter their passwords and change their default shells.
Failing that, it would be useful if the "Users" widgets in KDE and
gnome would look in /home/whomever when a new user "whomever" is
created and ask "do you want to use the uid and gid from
/home/whomever?" and if the answer is "no" then ask "do you want to
change the uid and gid of /home/whomever to the newly-assigned uid and
gid, and if so, assign it recursively?" And even if there's no
/home/whomever, it would be useful to have uid and gid boxes, either
under an "advanced" tab or pre-filled with the ones the widget invents,
for those of us who have several machines and want to use the same uid
and gid on all machines to make things like rsync easier.
--- Van Snyder
You have identified a valid need -- setting up consistent user names, UID's, group names, and GID's across a network of computers.The "enterprise" solution here is FreeIPA. FreeIPA works as a central server for one or more "domains" to which users belong. After setting up FreeIPA, an administrator would join new computers (by which we might mean physically new, or just logically new because the OS has been reinstalled on a an existing device) to the domain. Once joined to a domain, the computer knows about all the users in that domain and - barring extra restrictions - will allow those users to log in.