How do I create an administrator user on Ubuntu?

Question

I want to create a user having sudo powers in Ubuntu. How can I do that?

score 90 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 02 '13 at 13:11

90

First, create the user with:

sudo adduser <username>

You can read more about this command in the man pages of your system with man adduser.

You can then add a user to the sudo group with with the command:

sudo adduser <username> sudo

Note that versions of Ubuntu until 11.10 will use admin as group instead of sudo:

Until Ubuntu 11.10, the Unix group for administrators with root privileges through sudo had been admin. Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, it is now sudo, for compatibility with Debian and sudo itself. However, for backwards compatibility, admin group members are still recognized as administrators

If your system does not, then we need to mess with the sudoers file to grant sudo permissions. You can read about the sudoers file with man sudoers for details on the exact syntax and available options, but for simplicity's sake, you can do either of the following:

Create a group with the addgroup command, and then add that group to the sudoers file. Use addgroup <groupname> to create the group, and then edit the sudoers file (sudo visudo) and add the line %<groupname> ALL=(ALL) ALL to the bottom
Edit the sudoers file with sudo visudo, and add <username> ALL=(ALL) ALL at the bottom for each user you want to add.

edited Apr 02 '13 at 13:11

slhck

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answered Oct 07 '10 at 06:38

Darth Android

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I misread, thinking you had already created the user. Use `sudo adduser ` to create the user, and then use `sudo adduser admin` to grand them sudo powers. Ex: `sudo adduser piemesons` and `sudo adduser piemesons admin` – Darth Android Oct 07 '10 at 06:52
@Darth Android adduser: The user `username' does not exist. and what about the password of that user? and its not admin group its giving him adminstrator powers – Mohit Jain Oct 07 '10 at 06:54
Its not admin group.. Its adminstrators power. User created. Now i want to give him adminstrator powers.? – Mohit Jain Oct 07 '10 at 06:55
adduser: The group `admin' does not exist. – Mohit Jain Oct 07 '10 at 06:55
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Sorry, my ubuntu installation creates an admin group which has sudo powers. Read up on the sudoers file (`man sudoers`) and then `sudo visudo` to edit the file and grant permissions to whichever users or groups you want. You can use this file to control how sudo behaves, including whether it prompts for a password, or how long to keep a sudo session active (15min is default) – Darth Android Oct 07 '10 at 06:59
@Darth Android Yaa here is sudo visudo . I have a line "root ALL=(ALL) ALL". i think i just need to add a another line ie: "myNewUser ALL=(ALL) ALL". What say? – Mohit Jain Oct 07 '10 at 07:03
You might also try adding to the `sudo` group if it exists, or if you have to use the route suggested in my previous comment, either create a new group (`sudo addgroup `) and then add the line `% ALL=(ALL) ALL` to the sudoers file, or simply add individual users with ` ALL=(ALL) ALL` into the sudoers file. – Darth Android Oct 07 '10 at 07:03
You might want to add that if you're doing this on desktop, current LTS also puts the initial admin user in some other groups as well. adm, cdrom, sudo, dip, plugdev, lpadmin, and sambashare on a clean install with `cat /etc/group` | grep testing | cut -f 1 -d : – RobotHumans Aug 24 '13 at 10:32

score 25 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 23 '14 at 07:46

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The "popular" answer is how to "reimplement", not "how to add the user?". Bare minimum you need to do is this:

usermod -a -G sudo USERNAME

On my particular system, I am a member of the following groups:

usermod -a -G adm,cdrom,sudo,dip,plugdev,lpadmin,sambashare,libvirtd USERNAME

To verify what you have done:

groups USERNAME

edited Jun 23 '14 at 07:46

Paco Wong

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answered Apr 02 '13 at 15:40

Richard June

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I shared your question in the Ubuntu room since it is more correct. The only thing I might add is that libvirtd is not a default group for a clean install. The rest are. – RobotHumans Aug 25 '13 at 16:33

Neal · Answer 3 · 2010-10-07T07:01:16.293

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Choose System -> Administration -> Users and Groups.

Select Add to add your new user. When you have completed the wizard, choose your new user and click on account type and change from Desktop user to Administrator.

edited Oct 07 '10 at 07:01

answered Oct 07 '10 at 06:56

Neal

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I m on server dude. Only command line :-) – Mohit Jain Oct 07 '10 at 06:56
On my 12.04 system you will need to log out and in again before it works. But very easy and simple way to do it. – dennis Apr 05 '15 at 08:50

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 15 '17 at 07:54

If you are really want to create superuser (copy of root but with other password and home directory) and not a sudo user, use UID=0 and GID=0 for new user:

useradd -ou 0 -g 0 john

-o allows you to create non-unique UID (root UID=0)

-u $UID sets $UID

-g $GID sets $GID

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 27 '14 at 22:17

0

You can also enable root by:

passwd root

and then insert the password for the root

answered Aug 27 '14 at 22:17

Vahid Mirjalili

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This is an horrible answer. **NO ONE SHOULD EVER BE USING ROOT DIRECTLY.** – Léo Lam Mar 11 '15 at 14:33

score -2 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 07 '10 at 07:02

-2

What I do is adding user to group called wheel, user belonging to that group can execute any administrator command using sudo.

You must enable that feature in /etc/sudoers, uncomment line below %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

answered Oct 07 '10 at 07:02

Gadolin

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I know this is an old answer, but for the benefit of people coming here now: By default in Ubuntu, no `wheel` group exists, and this is *not* how administrative abilities are conferred. The `sudo` group is used (or the `admin` group -- *not* to be confused with the other group called `adm` -- in Ubuntu 11.10 and earlier). – Apr 02 '13 at 13:48

How do I create an administrator user on Ubuntu?

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