How to transfer users from old linux system to new installed system

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

we have a server running with Suse linux many years. Meanwhile we changed server hardware about 4 times, mostly also updating to newest Suse version.
We used to copy group, passwd and shadow to a backup medium, installed the new system and restored those files onto the new system and all was running fine.
Now, some weeks ago we installed 11.2 on new hardware and after restoring those 3 files after rebooting the system hangs when starting GUI. I can boot into runlevel 3 and login with no problem, but when I boot into runlevel 5 mouse and keyboard are frozen. Also when starting GUI from runlevel 3 with startx mouse and keyboard immediately freeze. If I restore the files group, passwd and shadow as they came from fresh new installation I can reboot and login in runlevel 5 without problems.
OK, if I compare the userlist, as it is generated bei installation, there are some usernames I formerly not had in older Suse versions. I don´t know if this can make problems? I tried to edit the files, to combine the system users from 11.2 with the list of local user names from the old system but without success, again the mouse and keyboard freeze.

So some questions arise:

  1. Why now mouse and keyboard freeze in xsystem, when there are changes in the user list (but only in runlevel 5)
  2. What is the correct way to save and restore users and groups from old to new system. I googled several hours but did not find a smart way. Maybee someon can point me to a link or a howto where I find the solution?

Thanks in advance

Klemens

2

Hi there,

maybe i missed it, but where is the part that says the userlist
leads to the keyboard and mouse freeze?

Well i think you should take a look at the syslog, maybe there is a
permission denied or something like that.

But as far as i remember, the user is identified by his uid and not
his name, so you maybe could just take a look which user id of your
backups does conflict with the new one.

And, maybe you should think about switching to OpenLDAP or NIS :slight_smile:
This would solve the problem (if it really happens cause of the
users)

Greetz Joerg