Users without a password?

[Fajar Priyanto]

On Friday 23 November 2007 02:19:48 Caleb Marcus wrote:
> I'd like to create an unprivileged guest account without a password so
> that friends and family who come over can use the computer without
> typing in a password. Is there any way to do this? I don't want to
> enable auto-login in GDM, because that would be annoying for me.

From http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-12777.html

[2] Have a word with PAM!
PAM is the authentication model employed in Ubuntu. The first thing to do is 
to edit the PAM file that specifies how authentication should work with GDM. 
Open the file:
$ sudo nano /etc/pam.d/gdm
Add lines that specify a password is not required for the users who are listed 
in a file that you are going to make later on. The new line in the file 
example comes between the #start and #end comments, all the other lines were 
there anyway and remain untouched:
----------------------
#%PAM-1.0
auth requisite pam_nologin.so
auth required pam_env.so
# the line below has been added specifically to allow selected users to log in 
via GDM without a password
# start
auth sufficient pam_listfile.so item=user sense=allow 
file=/etc/X11/gdm/nopassusers.txt onerr=fail
# end
@include common-auth
@include common-account
session required pam_limits.so
@include common-session
@include common-password
----------------------

[3] Tell PAM who to let in without a pass
Go to this following location: /etc/X11/gdm/
Make a new text file there called nopassusers.txt
In this file, list the usernames of the users who can log in without entering 
a password. Put each user on a new line.

OK - that should be it. Like I say, I know this works but have no idea whether 
it is sensible. Please if you have knowledge contribute to making this a 
better howto!

HTH
-- 
Fajar Priyanto | Reg'd Linux User #327841 | Linux tutorial 
http://linux2.arinet.org
11:51:42 up 1:15, 2.6.22-14-generic GNU/Linux 
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