user created unable to login

Question

I created a user in terminal by

useradd xyz

I'm able to log in from the terminal but not in the GUI.

What is wrong?

Answer 1

This might be because useradd didn't create a home directory for your new user. You should use

adduser xyz

instead and avoid using useradd since it is a backend command needing more input.

See also this answer, man useradd and man adduser.

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Or if you still want to use useradd use at least

useradd -m xyz

to create a home directory. But this still might be insufficient.

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Before starting now you might want to remove the user you created wrong by

userdel xyz

so you can create it again correctly without problems.

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Anyway:
If you have a GUI it might be easier to just use the GUI for adding the new user (usually somewhere in System-settings -> Accounts). This might also solve some problems with usergroups which might appear as @Videonauth pointed out.