Installed HP Linux Imaging and Printing by using install script and something crashed. Now I'm only member of my own group and lp.

Which are the default groups for users in for example Ubuntu 12.10? Same as this?

Out of curiosity, is there some place where this information is logged? For example, some log file showing which groups my user was on previous boot? Is this information, (which groups are default), documented somewhere?

2 Answers

A) Short answer

Default groups; say for user123, on fresh install - (use command groups in a terminal):

user123 adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare

Gives diff from 11.04 as

• admin is replaced by sudo
• dialout is removed
• dip is added.

To get/view defaults. Would probably work for various others too; do:

sudo grep user-setup /var/log/installer/syslog

B) Restoring default groups

(Adding this to make it more complete)

1. Identifying the groups

I always set root password, but if you haven't use a live CD, live USB, other install etc. to get to the file.

If you have set root password (by i.e.):

sudo passwd root

and have lost sudo privileges do:

su - root
grep user-setup /var/log/installer/syslog

Gives you i.e.

... user-setup: pwconv: failed to change the mode of /etc/passwd- to 0600
... user-setup: Shadow passwords are now on.
... user-setup: Adding user `user123' ...
... user-setup: Adding new group `user123' (1000) ...
... user-setup: Adding new user `user123' (1000) with group `user123' ...
... user-setup: Creating home directory `/home/user123' ...
... user-setup: Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
... user-setup: addgroup: The group `lpadmin' already exists as a system group. Exiting.
... user-setup: Adding group `sambashare' (GID 124) ...
... user-setup: Done.
... user-setup: Adding user `user123' to group `adm' ...
... user-setup: Adding user user123 to group adm
... user-setup: Done.
... user-setup: Adding user `user123' to group `cdrom' ...
... user-setup: Adding user user123 to group cdrom
... user-setup: Done.
... user-setup: Adding user `user123' to group `dip' ...
... user-setup: Adding user user123 to group dip
... user-setup: Done.
... user-setup: Adding user `user123' to group `lpadmin' ...
... user-setup: Adding user user123 to group lpadmin
... user-setup: Done.
... user-setup: Adding user `user123' to group `plugdev' ...
... user-setup: Adding user user123 to group plugdev
... user-setup: Done.
... user-setup: Adding user `user123' to group `sambashare' ...
... user-setup: Adding user user123 to group sambashare
... user-setup: Done.
... user-setup: adduser: The group `debian-tor' does not exist.
... user-setup: Adding user `user123' to group `sudo' ...
... user-setup: Adding user user123 to group sudo
... user-setup: Done.
... ubiquity: Removing user-setup ...
... ubiquity: Purging configuration files for user-setup ...

Or:

su - root
grep "user-setup: Adding user user123 to group" /var/log/installer/syslog | cut -d' ' -f11

Which yields:

adm
cdrom
dip
lpadmin
plugdev
sambashare
sudo

(No idea why dip suddenly has become a default group by install. Something to do with dialout being removed?)

2.a Updating groups - using "built-in" root access

So do, as root, to add groups to user, i.e. user user123:

usermod -a -G adm,cdrom,lpadmin,sudo,sambashare,dip,plugdev user123

Where (Somewhat outdated on 12.10):

adm Monitor system logs
cdrom Use CD-ROM drives
lpadmin Configure printers
sudo administer the system, ...
sambashare Share files with the local network
dip Connect to the Internet using a modem
plugdev Access external storage devices

Some extras you might need: (check what you have by root@YOURPC:~# id -nG user123)

dialout ttyS*/Serial/COM1,COM2 ...
vboxusers Virtual Box
user123 Your own group

If you want; double-check /etc/group , i.e. (here with some extras):

root@YOURPC:~# grep user123 /etc/group
adm:x:4:user123
audio:x:29:user123,timidity,pulse
video:x:44:user123
lp:x:7:user123
dialout:x:20:user123
cdrom:x:24:user123
sudo:x:27:user123
dip:x:30:user123
plugdev:x:46:user123
lpadmin:x:107:user123
user123:x:1000:
sambashare:x:124:user123
vboxusers:x:127:user123
autologin:x:1001:user123

As an alternative one can boot in to rescue mode and

mount -o remount,rw /
usermod -G adm,cdrom,lpadmin,sudo,sambashare,dip,plugdev user123

Log out and log in. Groups should be updated.

2.b Updating groups - using root access from Live-CD etc.

xxx here is where your file-system is mounted when running a live edition, i.e. /media/foo.

Manually edit the file /xxx/etc/group using vigr and add user as in previous listing.

Or; only add user to sudo; as in:

sudo:x:27:user123

Boot into your installation and update by executing the usermod command with sudo:

sudo usermod -a -G adm,cdrom,lpadmin,sudo,sambashare,dip,plugdev user123

Log out and log in. Groups should be updated.

Double Note: admin is no longer part of Ubuntu as of 11.10 in favour of sudo.

Additionally to the own user group, the user of a fresh installation is in the following default groups: