New user doesn't show up on login screen

[ni_ci]

I'm using Linux Mint 17.2 with Cinnamon and I've created a new user using the command line in a terminal window. The new user is listed in GUI (System settings -> Users and Groups) but it is not listed on the login screen so I can not select it for login or to switch user. Is there a way I can force the display manager to synchronize with the content of /etc/passwd ?

I did some research but all I could find was the opposite i.e. people looking for a way to hide a login name from being displayed on the login screen.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

[Cosmo.]

The quick solution: delete the new account and create it new with the GUI-tool.

The other question is, what exactly did you enter as command-line?

[Pierre]

also - try just typing the new user-name into the box, ignoring any existing user-name.
followed by the password - it should work.

to get back to the original user, type that user-name into the box.

it's a security thing - doesn’t show all users.

[ni_ci]

Thank you all for your help.

@Cosmo - I created the user with

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useradd -m -c "Test user" test

and I also noticed that the GECOS field in /etc/passwd for all accounts created in GUI contains several fields (some of them empty) separated by comas. I wonder what would be the purpose! Yes, I could delete the account and re-create it in GUI but I was keeping that as a last option.

@Pierre - I finally managed to make it work using your suggestion. However, I find it rather cumbersome to do all that just to get prompted for the login name. I agree with you that for security reasons a computer should not display a list of login names (some of which are already being displayed in our case), however triggering a failed login alert for an existing user in order to obtain the prompt to input login name is not a good idea. I strongly believe the login screen should adopt one of the two ways: either the way of convenience by displaying the list of all users or the way of security by asking for login name and password in two input fields.

[Cosmo.]

I wonder, why you used useradd and not adduser. The man pages for useradd recommends that, see also here.

[karlchen]

Hi, nici.

when logged in as the new user who does not show up in the MDM greeter screen, execute the terminal command

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id

What is the user ID number of the new user? In case it is something less than 1000, then the MDM greeter screen will not display the user in its list by default.

Cheers,
Karl

[ni_ci]

@Cosmo - Thanks for pointing me to adduser. I didn't have any special reason to use useradd, maybe I was just being too old school.

@ Karl - useradd assigned the highest available user ID number larger than 1000 as it is supposed to do, however I noticed that in /etc/passwd file the newly created user was missing a shell assignment.

Anyway, thanks to you my problem is now solved and as a bonus I got a little bit wiser.

Thank you all for your help.