Ubuntu – Add a Home directory for already created user when no direct root login available

home-directoryUbuntuusermod

I have a user account provided by client with unrestricted sudo access, but this user has no home directory. I want to create one, but I'm not sure how to go about it.

I tried logging in as my normal user and sudo suing into root, then running

 usermod -d /home/user  -m user

But it gaves the message usermod: no changes. I assume because my user is already logged in?

Other solutions seem to involve removing and re-creating my user account with a home directory, but again as user would be already logged in I think there may be problems with that approach.

Is there a way to create my user's home directory with the access I have, or do I need to inform my client/provider to recreate my account?

Best Answer

Just create a home directory for them and grant them permissions.
mkdir /home/$user and then chown $user:$user /home/$user.

Take note to replace the group in the chown command with something else if required.

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Ubuntu: add SFTP only user with access to directory inside another user’s home directory

Yes, it is possible. You have to use the "ChrootDirectory" directive. ( man sshd_config ). If you want to chroot only a specific user and your ssh version has sftp builtin:

Match user the_user_you_want_to_chroot
         ChrootDirectory /home/whatever/%u
         ForceCommand internal-sftp

( Be sure to check the manpage as it can be different )

Ubuntu – OpenLdap synchronize home directory between client and server

There are two common ways of dealing with a mixture of local and centralized accounts (be it LDAP or NIS or whatever). Your third update covers one of them.

Local accounts use a non-/home base directory for homes
LDAP/central use a non-/home base directory for homes

I commonly use option #1 and create /local then setup my local accounts to have home directories there such as /local/admin, /local/sysadmin, /local/joe, etc. I then use autofs to control mounting of centralized/remote home directories under /home much in the same way you're describing in "Update 3".

I presume your server is exporting home directories with NFS? If manually mounting the NFS export on the client works as expected but autofs does not, your problem is almost certainly your autofs configuration.

For assistance with your autofs problem, please post the contents of /etc/nsswitch.conf, /etc/(open)ldap/ldap.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and /etc/auto.master and /etc/auto.home (or whatever/wherever the relevant autofs configurations are).

Best Answer

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Ubuntu: add SFTP only user with access to directory inside another user’s home directory

Ubuntu – OpenLdap synchronize home directory between client and server

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