[McIDAS #LDE-412096]: setting up mcadde account in Suse 10.1

Hi HP,

re:
> I am setting up McIdas on a my new Linux notebook running Suse 10.1 (I
> know - not supported) where it primarily should feed IDV (on the same
> amcine) with AREA files of MSG data from EUMETSAT's ADDE server.

Sounds good.  Even though we do not have a SuSE platform in-house and
even though SSEC does not support anything but RedHat WS distributions
for McIDAS, I have no doubt that things will work correctly on your
machine.

> Now I have run into a problem right at the outset. With Suse's Yast I
> cannot create the mcadde account with mcidas' home directory as
> recommended. Yast simply issues an error message and blocks account
> creation.

This is a very 'Windows like' instance of someone trying to protect the
user from themselves.

> It must be possible to tweak the home directory after having
> created it. Unfortunately I am not well versed in Linux/Unix.

You should be able to use Yast (I am not familiar with Yast) to
create the mcadde account using a directory other than that of
'mcidas' and then run 'vipw' as root to change the setup.  Again,
I am assuming that SuSE contains the standard Linux utility 'vipw'.

'vipw' must be run as 'root'.  It uses the 'vi' editor to edit
the /etc/passwd and shadow password files.  The only change you
should have to make is to the /etc/passwd file: simply change the
HOME directory for 'mcadde' from /home/mcadde to /home/mcidas.
While at it, change the default shell from whatever you set it to
be to /sbin/nologin (if Yast didn't allow you to do that when
you create the 'mcadde' account).

Here is what the /etc/passwd entries for 'mcidas' and 'mcadde' look
like on my Fedora Core 6 system:

mcidas:x:500:500:Unidata McIDAS-X:/home/mcidas:/bin/bash
mcadde:x:501:500:McIDAS ADDE Remote ServerX:/home/mcidas:/sbin/nologin

If for some reason SuSE does not have 'vipw', or if for some unexpected
reason it doesn't allow you to change the /etc/passwd entry for 'mcadde'
(I would be very suprised if it doesn't, by the way), then I recommend
that you create a symbolic link from the HOME directory of 'mcidas' to
the HOME directory of 'mcadde' as follows:

<as 'root'>
cd /home
rm -rf mcadde
ln -s mcidas mcadde

Please let me know your results.


Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: LDE-412096
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed