Contents
During installation, you chose a method for user
authentication. This method is either local (via
/etc/passwd) or, if a network connection is
established, via NIS, LDAP, Kerberos or Samba (see
Section “Create New User” (Chapter 1, Installation with YaST, ↑Start-Up)
. You can
create or modify user accounts and change the authentication method with
YaST at any time.
Every user is assigned a system-wide user ID (UID). Apart from the users which can log in to your machine, there are also a number of system users for internal use only. Each user is assigned to one or more groups. Similar to system users, there are also system groups for internal use. For information about the Linux user and group concept, refer to Section “User Concept” (Chapter 6, Basic Concepts, ↑Start-Up).
To administer users or groups, start YaST and click +. Alternatively, start the dialog directly by running yast2 users & from a command line.
Depending on the set of users you choose to view and modify with, the dialog (local users, network users, system users), the main window shows several tabs. These allow you to execute the following tasks:
- Managing User Accounts
From the tab create, modify, delete or temporarily disable user accounts as described in Section 8.2, “Managing User Accounts”. Learn about advanced options like enforcing password policies, using encrypted home directories, using fingerprint authentication, or managing disk quotas in Section 8.3, “Additional Options for User Accounts”.
- Changing Default Settings
Local users accounts are created according to the settings defined on the tab. Learn how to change the default group assignment, or the default path and access permissions for home directories in Section 8.4, “Changing Default Settings for Local Users”.
- Assigning Users to Groups
Learn how to change the group assignment for individual users in Section 8.5, “Assigning Users to Groups”.
- Managing Groups
From the tab, you can add, modify or delete existing groups. Refer to Section 8.6, “Managing Groups” for information on how to do this.
- Changing the User Authentication Method
When your machine is connected to a network that provides user authentication methods like NIS or LDAP, you can choose between several authentication methods on the tab. For more information, refer to Section 8.7, “Changing the User Authentication Method”.
For user and group management, the dialog provides similar functionality. You can easily switch between the user and group administration view by choosing the appropriate tab at the top of the dialog.
Filter options allow you to define the set of users or groups you want to modify: On the or tab, click to view and edit users or groups according to certain categories, such as or , for instance (if you are part of a network which uses LDAP). With + you can also set up and use a custom filter.
Depending on the filter you choose, not all of the following options and functions will be available from the dialog.