Admin user doesn't work

Hi,
the description is a little confusing for me, because the title says something else than
>>After that for one user (admin level) but not for another user (desktop level)...<<

So if you've got still admin rights there shoudn't be a problem to give a user his permissions back in "user and groups".
In recovery mode, e.g. when username is "Tom":
groupadd -g 1000 Tom
usermod -u 1000 -d /home/Tom -g 1000 Tom
chown Tom:Tom /home/Tom

Then put Tom in "admin" in /etc/group
Wherever the testuser appears in /etc/passwd and /etc/group change the name to "Tom".

The admin level user (administratr) has admin rights but the other user doesn't. When logging in to administrator, there are no menu entries or quick launch icons active even though they are displayed. I can start up using recovery mode (from Grub) but I get 'Password file locked' when I try to use such commands as usermod even when logged in as root. I looked at the /etc/groups file and it shows that administrator is part of the group admin.

Hi,
you can check if there is a group e.g. "Tom", in this group should be the user e.g. "Tom" and if this user is in "admin".
As "root" in recovery mode you can even set a new password with
passwd

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LostPassword

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FilePermissions

As I said before:
I can start up using recovery mode (from Grub) but I get 'Password file locked' when I try to use such commands as usermod even when logged in as root. I looked at the /etc/groups file and it shows that administrator is part of the group admin.

Hi John,
since I'm not able to reproduce this, try to boot from live CD and fix it from there via chroot.
Mount your Hardy drive (replace xxx)
sudo mkdir /media/hardy
sudo mount /dev/xxx /media/hardy

sudo chroot /media/hardy su
sudo passwd username

another alternative
http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com/2007/09/recover-forgotten-ubuntu-password.html

I've done the 'sudo passwd administrator' command and set the password. I then tried the 'groupadd -g 1000 administrator' command but it said that the group already existed.

Below is the contents of /etc/group:
root:x:0:
daemon:x:1:
bin:x:2:
sys:x:3:
adm:x:4:administrator,judith
tty:x:5:
disk:x:6:
lp:x:7:
mail:x:8:
news:x:9:
uucp:x:10:
man:x:12:
proxy:x:13:
kmem:x:15:
dialout:x:20:administrator,judith
fax:x:21:judith
voice:x:22:
cdrom:x:24:haldaemon,administrator,judith
floppy:x:25:haldaemon,administrator,judith
tape:x:26:judith
sudo:x:27:
audio:x:29:administrator,judith,pulse
dip:x:30:administrator,judith
www-data:x:33:
backup:x:34:
operator:x:37:
list:x:38:
irc:x:39:
src:x:40:
gnats:x:41:
shadow:x:42:
utmp:x:43:
video:x:44:administrator
sasl:x:45:
plugdev:x:46:haldaemon,administrator,judith
staff:x:50:
games:x:60:
users:x:100:
nogroup:x:65534:
dhcp:x:101:
syslog:x:102:
klog:x:103:
scanner:x:104:hplip,administrator,judith
nvram:x:105:
fuse:x:106:judith
ssl-cert:x:107:
lpadmin:x:108:administrator
messagebus:x:109:
admin:x:110:administrator
crontab:x:111:
ssh:x:112:
avahi-autoipd:x:113:
avahi:x:114:
netdev:x:115:administrator
haldaemon:x:116:
powerdev:x:117:haldaemon,administrator
gdm:x:118:
administrator:x:1000:
judith:x:1001:
Debian-exim:x:120:
libuuid:x:121:
mlocate:x:122:
pulse:x:123:
pulse-access:x:124:
pulse-rt:x:125:
polkituser:x:126:

Below is the content of /etc/passwd:
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/bin/sh
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/bin/sh
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/sh
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/bin/sh
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/bin/sh
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/bin/sh
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/bin/sh
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/sh
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/bin/sh
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/bin/sh
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/bin/sh
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/bin/sh
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/bin/sh
dhcp:x:100:101::/nonexistent:/bin/false
syslog:x:101:102::/home/syslog:/bin/false
klog:x:102:103::/home/klog:/bin/false
messagebus:x:103:109::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
hplip:x:104:7:HPLIP system user,,,:/var/run/hplip:/bin/false
avahi-autoipd:x:105:113:Avahi autoip daemon,,,:/var/lib/avahi-autoipd:/bin/false
avahi:x:106:114:Avahi mDNS daemon,,,:/var/run/avahi-daemon:/bin/false
haldaemon:x:107:116:Hardware abstraction layer,,,:/home/haldaemon:/bin/false
gdm:x:108:118:Gnome Display Manager:/var/lib/gdm:/bin/false
administrator:x:1000:1000:Administrator,,,,:/home/administrator:/bin/bash
judith:x:1001:1001:Judith,,,,:/home/judith:/bin/bash
Debian-exim:x:109:120::/var/spool/exim4:/bin/false
libuuid:x:110:121::/var/lib/libuuid:/bin/sh
pulse:x:111:123:PulseAudio daemon,,,:/var/run/pulse:/bin/false
polkituser:x:112:126:PolicyKit,,,:/var/run/PolicyKit:/bin/false

I would have attached them as files, but I didn't find an attach facility on this facility.

Hi,
thanks for the information and there is no need to attach the files.

Now "administrator" has a password and is, as we can see listed in /etc/group as
admin:x:110:administrator
and of course
administrator:x:1000

From this point of view the user "administrator" should be able to administrate the system.

However, the problem us that when administrator logs into gnome, then the Launch icons and menus are all inactive i.e. mouse clicking on them has no effect. Also, only the applet for closing apps is visible i.e. other applets such as power, glipper, search. My view is that the problem could be with the loading of the glipper applet. However, the glipper applet used to be visible & work ubtil the 'fatal' Update (from the repositories).

Hi John,
this is really getting weird.
So now, there are some options for trial and error, like

remove and reinstall glipper (it's still under development)

reset the panel with
gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel

check permissions of
.local/share/applications
##these are the files laying behind menu entries
or reset the menu by renaming the entry

rename or remove
the history files in
.config/menus

check .xession.errors after booting for messages which could point to the problem
check messages in Xorg.0.log or syslog

try to start with Alt+F2 the app which can't be launched from the menu

Sam,

I removed glipper using ;'apt-get remove glipper' at the root prompt. I then tried to reinstall glipper (apt-get install glipper) but system couldn't find archive. I couldn't remember wget etc details. So I logged into gnome. 2 windows appeared successively giving same error about loading glipper. Each window gave me option of deleting glipper from panel, which I took. Everything then OK. So I ran Update Manager, which was OK.

My feeling is that because this PC was upgraded from Gutsy to Hardy, this caused problems with glipper (which had its modus operandi changed). I'm cogitating now as whether to install glipper or switch to parcellite.

Hi,
it's really solved, great.
I've researched a little and found threads (Aug. 2007 - Jan. 2008) with a german developer, who doesn't use Glipper himself anymore.
However he assumes problems with gconf and further amd_64 systems, they were not tested.
The project
http://glipper.sourceforge.net/

Suggestions were to remove history files of Glipper, because versions might not be compatible
rm ~/.glipper/history
and when using a new version the old .glipper folder should be removed.
After installing they had to restart their systems or made
killall gconfd-2
Some went back to version 0.95.1, some had the same problem after complete removing, reinstalling and restart.
And the other favourite parcellite.

Finally, you are probably very right with your feeling about the upgrade.
However Hardy is the best version I've ever had and I'd wish you'll enjoy it.

Sam,

Thanks for your help. I agree with you about Hardy being better than Gutsy, Feisty & Edgy. I think that I'll leave glipper alone on the upgraded PC for the moment, as it's my wife's and she never uses glipper. I'll try out parcellite on it. On my laptop which I did a clean install of Hardy (I forget why), there is no problem with glipper.

Regards,
John