Here's the script code I'm using now:

getent group $MYGROUP

if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then

    sudo su -c "groupadd $MYGROUP"

fi

sudo su -c "useradd mynewuser -p mypassword -m -g $PRIMARYGRP -G $MYGROUP"

This approach works well on openSuse. But there are several problems with the user account it creates on Ubuntu so I am seeking help here.

• the terminal prompt isn't set (echo $PS1 returns nothing)


• the arrow keys and tab key do not work correctly in the terminal


• the password doesn't seem to work (although I'm still unclear exactly what this issue is)


• the /etc/sudoers rights set for this new user are not honored

If instead I manually create the user with adduser (instead of useradd) I don't have these problems on Ubuntu. But I can't use adduser on openSuse (afaik). Therefore, I need a non-Debian-exclusive script or method of adding user accounts via my bash script that works on Ubuntu (and doesn't stop working on other distros).

Finally, I would like to understand the differences between adduser and useradd. For example, I want to know which skeleton directory is used by adduser as that might be the reason useradd isn't working as expected (because I just accepted the default).

Thanks