user won't boot

[donecweb]

I have a user all set up and looking like I wanted it to with most of the programs setup like I wanted them to be and now when I try to boot as that user I get error messages and when I try and switch user to that user from the root user the screen goes black and then reverts to the root user.

My question is how do I setup a user that has the same setup as another user so that the new user starts with the same settings? Also how can I back up a user and restore the user.

[SensoVision]

I have a user all set up and looking like I wanted it to with most of the programs setup like I wanted them to be and now when I try to boot as that user I get error messages and when I try and switch user to that user from the root user the screen goes black and then reverts to the root user.

I've not quite understand what you've did before and why user won't boot, I can try to give my guess if you describe steps which you've done and/or post last entries from /var/log/syslog file.

My question is how do I setup a user that has the same setup as another user so that the new user starts with the same settings?

if I understand correctly what you're looking for, here is solution how to create user called newuser with settings of olduser:
become root
adduser newuser
cd /home
cp -R olduser newuser
chown -R newuser newuser
chgrp -R newuser newuser

Generally if you only wish to give same look of desktop to the user you need to copy directories from home started with dot "."(which are kind of system directories hidden from user). So after creation process you may go to newuser directory with file manager like MidnightCommander and delete the rest of files.

WARNING! if you create this user for other person it could be dangerous as it would possess all files from your desktop and could get other private data stored in your home directory.

Also how can I back up a user and restore the user.

I'm backing up data from home directory and some other places by a script which is runned by crontab. If you're interested I can post it here later with explanation how adapt it to your system.
But if the only place you need to back-up is home directory here is solution:
become root - (this is just in case if your /home directory isn't readable by users.)
cd /home
tar jcvf backup-user.tar.bz2 userdirectory - This would create archive named backup-user.tar.bz2 which would preserve file permissions and ownership, it could be burned to CD safely and stored as backup.

Once you need data simply use some archive or file manager which could deal with archives, alternatively you can extract whole archive using console like this:
tar jxvf backup-user.tar.bz2

Hope that was what you're looking for.

[donecweb]

Thanks Denis. Let's see if I understand what you are saying here.

become root
Means log in as root?

adduser newuser
understood.

cd /home
Change directory to home?

cp -R olduser newuser
copy root of old user to newuser?

chown -R newuser newuser
Don't understand.

chgrp -R newuser newuser
Don't understand.

[SensoVision]

become root
Means log in as root?

that's right, you can either login as root or execute su command in terminal which would ask you for root password.

cd /home
Change directory to home?

that's right, it would be easier to perform things from here as you can put relative paths instead of absolute ones.

cp -R olduser newuser
copy root of old user to newuser?

this would copy home directory and all subdirectories and files inside them of old user to home directory of new user(but I guess it would work only on usual user directories, if you try to do it with root there could be some problems, but I'm not sure as never tried to do this).

chown -R newuser newuser
Don't understand.

chgrp -R newuser newuser
Don't understand.

[/quote]
Each file in Linux has it's owner and also belong to some group. Generally all files inside user home directory should belong to him and also to his group. so by these two command we change ownership(chown) and change group (chgrp) to new user.

here is another example which should be more easier to read:
chown -R owner-name directory-or-file
chown -R name-of-group directory-or-file


Because command have key -R which means recursive it would apply changes not just to main directory but to files inside it and subdirectories.
Does it make things more clear?