Home directory defaults for creating new users?

[teastman]

Okay this should be an easy one but I couldn't find it in Fiesty and I think I should be able to make it work in 8.04. I found it in SuSE 9.1 but that's long gone.

The question is; When creating new users, their home folders have permissions that are allowing other users to browse their home folders UNLESS the folder permissions are deliberately set to "Forbidden" by that user.

Can I create /specify a "template" for all newly created users with the browse permissions already set to "Forbidden"?

Users come and go on this machine - it's a test bed.

Thanks!
tje

[dibl]

Re: Home directory defaults for creating new users?

When creating new users, their home folders have permissions that are allowing other users to browse their home folders UNLESS the folder permissions are deliberately set to "Forbidden" by that user.

What? This doesn't sound right! How are you adding users?

[teastman]

Re: Home directory defaults for creating new users?

What? This doesn't sound right! How are you adding users?

Hmmm - well the only way I know how (at this point) is to go through the System tools and use the User Manager. Logging in as root to do that of course then I can create/modify/delete users there.

Should I be doing this by command line interface?

I'm not at that machine right now so some of that phraseology might not be 100% accurate.

Thanks!
tje

[Tecumseh]

Re: Home directory defaults for creating new users?

I have found something for you but because I only have access at a debian system at this moment I can't be 100% sure about it.

Anyway, you should take a look at /etc/adduser.conf

In this file a couple of things are set that are used to create new users. The option you'll want to change is DIR_MODE=0755

[dibl]

Re: Home directory defaults for creating new users?

Logging in as root to do that of course

POSSIBLY this is the problem. With *buntu systems, the developers have changed the design of the Debian "root user" a lot -- basically it doesn't exist. "Super User DO" or "sudo" is the means by which the user temporarily gains root privileges for operations that require such. So with *buntu (as opposed to other Linux systems), the actual root login should be rarely if ever used. Doing that has been seen to cause problems before, just not THIS problem.

You can test my theory by using your normal user login to get to the System Settings>User Management utility, then click "Add User" and then the "Adminstrator Mode" button to give your sudo password, then proceed to add another user. Hopefully that user won't be able to see the other user folders, and the other users won't be able to see his. If so, we know the problem and the solution. If not, then I remain as mystified as you. :P

[teastman]

Re: Home directory defaults for creating new users?

Dibl - I'm as stumped as you are with this one. Your suggestion is how I've been creating users since Fiesty. I've looked around for a standard "new user" template where Hardy gets it's settings from but don't know enough about Kubuntu to find it.

In SuSE we just went to it's users template folder and forced the permissions directly on that folder. There was no file to edit - we just forced the permissions on that template folder.

No I don't want to go back to SuSE!