How to Add a User Account from the Terminal in Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon

📅 April 14, 2016
What? You added a new user to your Linux system from the terminal and his login does not appear on the login screen? No default directories in his home? He cannot login?

If you have read about command-line user management or studied for Linux+ certification, you no doubt have learned the “official” way to add a new user to a system with useradd.

That might be fine for a certification test, but the real world differs. Various distributions might tweak the process to make it…well…different from what the books mention.

One such case is Linux Mint Cinnamon. Invoking useradd according to the book will not simply add a new user and away you go. There are a few extra steps involved to produce results comparable to the Users and Groups GUI dialog of Linux Mint.

Here are a few ideas that show how to create a new user from a terminal in Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon. This way, you can take the ideas and script them for multi-user creation.