Unable to create multiple users with the same home

[Mark]

I am trying to add ftp users to my system with the 'users and groups' applet and it is not working correctly. When I try to add unpriveleged users, i want all of them to have the same home dir '/home/fileserver'. The applet refuses to let me do this. It says home dir already exists.

[Mark (nix4me)]

i forgot to add that I am using Ubuntu 8.04.1 with all updates installed.

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in gnome-system-tools.

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

This bug originally was about 2 separate issues with the Users and Groups applet. The second issue is now reported as a separate bug, bug 245952. You can track the status of that bug at https://launchpad.net/bugs/245952 .

Thanks!

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

This bug prevents one from adding a user when the home directory already exists, which I think is likely to be a more common scenario. Instead of giving a "Home directory already exists" error, users-admin should give a warning, and allow the user to proceed if confirmed.

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Should be easy enough to fix. Adding on my TODO list for the next release.

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

In 2.29.2 we let adduser create the home directory from the login name. Home dir can only be changed for existing users, this is a design decision. So this bug can't happen now, since it would mean that a user with the same login already exists, which we don't allow.

I've just tested it with adduser, and the following procedure would work: we could add an user profile setting for Home, that you would be able to set in /etc/gnome-system-tools/user-profiles.conf. Maybe for the next cycle.