- Log in to your server as the root user.
ssh root@server_ip_address
- Use the adduser command to add a new user to your system.
Be sure to replace username with the user that you want to create.
adduser username
- Set and confirm the new user's password at the prompt. A strong password is highly recommended!
Set password prompts:
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Follow the prompts to set the new user's information. It is fine to accept the defaults to leave all of this information blank.
User information prompts: Changing the user information for username
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
Full Name []:
Room Number []:
Work Phone []:
Home Phone []:
Other []:
Is the information correct? [Y/n]
- Use the usermod command to add the user to the sudo group.
usermod -aG sudo username
By default, on Ubuntu, members of the sudo group have sudo privileges.
Test sudo access on new user account
- Use the su command to switch to the new user account.
su - username
As the new user, verify that you can use sudo by prepending "sudo" to the command that you want to run with superuser privileges.
sudo command_to_run
For example, you can list the contents of the /root directory, which is normally only accessible to the root user.
sudo ls -la /root
The first time you use sudo in a session, you will be prompted for the password of the user account. Enter the password to proceed.
Output:
[sudo] password for username:
If your user is in the proper group and you entered the password correctly, the command that you issued with sudo should run with root privileges.