[atFault]

After an erase in install of Tiger I created a new account and copied all my files back over to the new user profile. Since I do all my work on my desktop machine, and I'm not the cleanest digital worker, my desktop is often full of windows and files/folders. So I usually have one or two additional users configured if someone else wants to use my computer or if I need to do any trouble shooting.

The first one I made I called 'guest' and thought I made the mistake of naming it something that the OS might use. Now I've made 2 others and they don't seem to show up either. Not in the Accounts Preference Pane, Fast User Switching menu, Login Window or in Get Info pane. They do exist as users in the /users folder, but I do not have permission to see their contents. If I 'get info' for the folders it says it is owned by (unknown). It has all the proper sub-folders for a user folder, but the total user home folder is 24k, so obviously there is nothing there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Chuckit]

How did you make these users if not in the Accounts prefpane?

[atFault]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

How did you make these users if not in the Accounts prefpane?

I did make them in the Accounts Preference Pane. I am administrator, clicked the lock, add a user account, filled out the info, Create Account. The drive makes some noise like it is writing the new profile and home folder, but then nothing changes in accounts window. It shows:

My Account
atfault
Admin

Other Accounts
*blank*

but my /users folder looks like this:

guest
atfault
ospite
Shared
visitor

All the correct names, but guest, ospite and visitor are all 24k and don't show up anywhere else but here.

[C.J. Moof]

I don't have an answer, but I can tell you you're not alone with new account problems. I tried to add one to my Cube under X.4.1 today, and while the user adds in the Accounts preference pane, and in /Users/, I can't log in under that account- the password is always wrong.

Yes, I typed the password accurately. Even an account with NO password can't be logged into.

Something's wrong here....

[xMetal]

I am noticing this too, right now. I create a new user account, and it makes the folder structure on the computer but does not show this new account in the Prefs pane or login window. Very frustrating!

[C.J. Moof]

While researching my similar problem, I found advice on the Apple Discussions recommeding booting from the Tiger install disc and running Disk Utility to Repair Permissions from there. Didn't fix my problem, but it could help yours.

Mine was fixed by making the account, enabling root user in netinfo, then su to root in a terminal session.
enter passwd <username to change>, then enter and verify the new password.

[stoneage]

I can't seem to log in using my admin name. An unauthorized (non admin) user can access the computer and I can get to my files, but the admin can't log in at all. It's really weird. Any idea what I can do?

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by C.J. Moof

Mine was fixed by making the account, enabling root user in netinfo, then su to root in a terminal session.
enter passwd <username to change>, then enter and verify the new password.

Couldn't this be simplified (two different ways) by using sudo?

[C.J. Moof]

You need to run passwd from root, as root isn't required to verify the user's existing password, it goes straight into the new and verify dialogs. When I ran it as the user to change, it first asked for the existing pass, and anything entered into that dialog is wrong.

In my experience, I had to su to root first, then run passwd.

[stoneage]

Originally Posted by C.J. Moof

You need to run passwd from root, as root isn't required to verify the user's existing password, it goes straight into the new and verify dialogs. When I ran it as the user to change, it first asked for the existing pass, and anything entered into that dialog is wrong.

In my experience, I had to su to root first, then run passwd.

Please give me details on how I can accomplish this. I am the admin acct. and nothing I enter is recognized as valid.

[theolein]

Could it be that OSX 10.4 is no longer using Netinfo as the primary user control area?

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by C.J. Moof

You need to run passwd from root, as root isn't required to verify the user's existing password, it goes straight into the new and verify dialogs. When I ran it as the user to change, it first asked for the existing pass, and anything entered into that dialog is wrong.

In my experience, I had to su to root first, then run passwd.

But it isn't necessary to enable root in order to su to root (this can be done through sudo with an administrator's password), and if you use sudo, the command will run as root by default even without using su. I wasn't suggesting you run it as the user to change. I'm just saying that sudo is much simpler than enabling root and suing.

[C.J. Moof]

Hrm. Yeah, you're right. It is easier to just drop to a terminal and type

Code:
sudo passwd <account to change>

It does work without enabling root in Netinfo. I learned something today.
Stoneage- the above is what you want to do.