Copied passwd file to another box..GUI upset

[linuxnut]

I'm using RedHat 7.3 and have tried copying the passwd and group files from one server to another in an effort to save myself from having to recreate all of my users.

One thing I've noticed is that the user manager in KDE does not like it. If I try to launch user manager, the screen pops up and then disappears within a second or two and the mouse blinks as if it's thinking about it and then nothing happens.

I personally like command line however I do have others on my team that do not understand linux as much as I do so I need to have the GUI functioning as well.

What I did is copy over passwd, passwd-, group and group- from one box to another. The system works fine as far as having users log in and do their job is concerned. I'm just stuck on why the GUI blows up. Has anyone else had this problem and know how to fix it?

 

[Norwich]

Did you copy over the /etc/shadow files too?

 

[linuxnut]

I did yes. Sorry...I neglected to mention that in my post. I tried the same procedure on another system and the GUI is unhappy on that one too. Very strange how the system runs fine even though user manager is messed up.

 

[BitFuzzy]

Hello;

Assuming you're transfering from and to the same OS you shouldn't have a problem.

If you're having a problem w/ your gui's crashing it could be caused from one or more of the following.

1) defined shell for user in /etc/passwd is invalid (either /bin/false, /bin/null, /bin/no, or unavailable shell) try switching these to /bin/bash

2) Home directory is non-existant and or does not have proper permissions

if user 'abc' has '/home/abc' defined in /etc/passwd then 'home/abc' must be created before that user will be able to login

If the dir '/home/abc' does exist, or if you just created it, remember to "chmod" the directory to the user (in this case "abc" --> 'chmod abc:abc')

Hope this helps

 

[linuxnut]

I appreciate the info. I found that I had missed the gshadow and gshadow- files.

Thanks again.