Migration assistant ate admin account

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Level 1

11 points

Migration assistant ate admin account

I got a new (used) iMac G5 and used the migration assistant to transfer everything from my older powerbook to the new iMac. Everything transferred just fine, except...

1. The account that was transferred is listed in Preferences->Accounts, but does not appear in the list of user accounts at login. Therefore I cannot select that account to login. Somehow, since it is visible in Preferences->Accounts I can select it there to automatically login. That is the only way I can use that account.

2. The transferred account has admin priveleges according to Account settings, but I cannot use these credentials to authenticate.

3. On a hunch I disabled the admin priveleges for initial administrator account. This was the only account on the computer when I got it. I could authenticate as admin using that account, but now that I have revoked admin priveleges for that account there is effectively no administrator account since I can't authenticate using any other account.

Any ideas how to get things working correctly?

Thanks,
Eric

iMac G5 1.9ghz, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Jan 7, 2007 5:10 PM

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Answer 1

Eric Batte Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 7, 2007 6:47 PM in response to Eric Batte

OK, so I figured out how to create a new administrator account by reseting the initial OS X setup.

My transferred user account is the one I want/need to be using so as far as I know I'm left with 2 options:

1. Transfer everything from one account to another
2. Figure out how to unhide this account and make authentication work for it

Probably #1 is the easiest. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Eric

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Answer 2

Niel

Level 10

741,845 points

Jan 7, 2007 8:31 PM in response to Eric Batte

Look in the Users folder for the home folder of the account you migrated; if you find it, drag it to your desktop. If a message appears which says that you don't have permission to do this, click Authenticate, and type in your password.

If the account's home folder is not located in /Users/, open the NetInfo Manager in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and find the home property for that user account. Once you have this property, navigate to the folder at that path in the Finder; using the Go to Folder command in the Go menu may be necessary.

(18997)

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Answer 3

Eric Batte Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 8, 2007 10:54 AM in response to Niel

I know I said moving would be the easiest, but isn't this just B.S. that the OS has hidden the user account from login/authentication? I've never heard of such a thing!

Has no one else ever experienced this?

Should I try using the migration assistant again and see if that has any effect?

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Answer 4

Eric Batte Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 11, 2007 4:46 PM in response to Eric Batte

So, no input on this?

Is there a way I can force the current user to be administrator using the command line since setting it in Preferences has no effect???

Thanks,
Eric

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Answer 5

Niel

Level 10

741,845 points

Jan 11, 2007 8:25 PM in response to Eric Batte

Try the instructions in this FAQ.

(19083)

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Answer 6

Eric Batte Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 12, 2007 7:28 PM in response to Niel

Thanks Neil. I followed those instructions. Now it seems hit and miss. For example, to check to see if the commands worked I went into Netinfo Manager\Groups\Admin and sure enough my desired username was in the list. This was the user I was currently logged in as.

I clicked the lock in Netinfo Manager and authenticated as the current user and it worked so I thought things were looking up. I then tried to run Onyx which must be run as an admin and it wouldn't.

I then tried something that I knew would require authentication - move a file into the applications folder. That wouldn't authenticate either. This is all using the same credentials that DID authenticate in Netinfo Manager.

Strange.

Any thoughts?

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Answer 7

Eric Batte Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 12, 2007 8:04 PM in response to Eric Batte

Something else I noticed in Netinfo Manager:

In Groups\myusername the properties generateduid and passwd are in reverse order for the problematic user. For all other users they are listed name, passwd, generateduid, gid. For the problematic user they are listed name, generateduid, passws, gid.

I have no idea if that is relevant, but it is unique.

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Answer 8

Eric Batte Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 14, 2007 3:02 PM in response to Niel

OK, let me rephrase my question:

What would cause a user not to be listed in the user accounts list at login? This user is also not listed when switching accounts with fast user switching.

Eric

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Answer 9

Jan 14, 2007 4:00 PM in response to Eric Batte

Eric

the properties generateduid and passwd are in reverse order

This shouldn't matter, although it looks unusual.

What would cause a user not to be listed in the user accounts list at login?

Is this problem user the only user with administrative privileges?

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Answer 10

Niel

Level 10

741,845 points

Jan 14, 2007 5:37 PM in response to Eric Batte

See this article for information about hidden user accounts.

(19161)

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Answer 11

Eric Batte Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 15, 2007 10:49 AM in response to Michael Conniff

No, there are 2 other users with admin priveleges.

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Answer 12

Eric Batte Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 15, 2007 10:54 AM in response to Niel

I tried the command to unhide all accounts and here what was returned:

There is no ( HiddenUsersList) default for the (com.apple.loginwindow) domain.
Defaults have not been changed.

I guess that's not it. FYI, the UID is 502 for the hidden user.

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Answer 13

Jan 15, 2007 11:17 AM in response to Eric Batte

Eric

I was heading in the same direction as Niel, but one step at a time. Try these commands from an admin account other than 502 (best copy and paste the following):

defaults read com.apple.loginwindow HideAdminUsers
defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HideAdminUsers

The first should give

The domain/default pair of (com.apple.loginwindow, HideAdminUsers) does not exist

and the second just false. Now try again with user 502.

But I suspect this won't show any difference.

I tried the command to unhide all accounts

You didn't list the command you used, but try this to see what it says:

defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList

You don't need 'sudo' just to read it.

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Answer 14

Eric Batte Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 15, 2007 12:48 PM in response to Michael Conniff

Michael,
Here is a pasted copy of the thermial commands and responses:

Erics-iMac-G5:~ ericbatte$ sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \HiddenUsersList
Password:
2007-01-15 12:52:06.183 defaults[1977]
There is no (HiddenUsersList) default for the (com.apple.loginwindow) domain.
Defaults have not been changed.
Erics-iMac-G5:~ ericbatte$ HiddenUsersListsudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \ HiddenUsersList
-bash: HiddenUsersListsudo: command not found
Erics-iMac-G5:~ ericbatte$ sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \ HiddenUsersList
2007-01-15 12:52:57.143 defaults[1979]
There is no ( HiddenUsersList) default for the (com.apple.loginwindow) domain.
Defaults have not been changed.
Erics-iMac-G5:~ ericbatte$ defaults read com.apple.loginwindow HideAdminUsers
2007-01-15 14:45:27.752 defaults[2003]
The domain/default pair of (com.apple.loginwindow, HideAdminUsers) does not exist
Erics-iMac-G5:~ ericbatte$ defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HideAdminUsers
2007-01-15 14:45:43.558 defaults[2004]
The domain/default pair of (com.apple.loginwindow, HideAdminUsers) does not exist
Erics-iMac-G5:~ ericbatte$ defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList
2007-01-15 14:46:36.841 defaults[2005]
The domain/default pair of (com.apple.loginwindow, HiddenUsersList) does not exist

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Answer 15

Jan 15, 2007 3:51 PM in response to Eric Batte

Eric

OK, maybe there is something strange in NetInfo Manager. Let's see the output from these two commands ( copy and paste again, please):

nireport . /users uid gid name realname home shell | awk '$1>500 {print $0}'
nireport . /groups name gid users | grep -v "#NoValue#"

This should show who belongs to which group, among other things.

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