Does oem-config create a user not in sudo group?

Question

My friend just bought a netbook with Xubuntu preinstalled and the user was created right in store without giving her a root password. Neither was it an admin user. Was it oem-config's fault or store stаff's?

Tip: To solve this boot into recovery mode, choose root and execute

mount -o remount,rw /
passwd root

Answer 1

Short answer

Sometimes. Typically it will create one of these, but not both:

• a traditional root user
• a non-root user that has sudo permissions

Long answer

The oem-config command is a symbolic link to ubiquity, Ubuntu's standard installer. Ubiquity runs the script user-setup-ask-oem to determine how user accounts should be configured, and then the script user-setup-apply to actually create them.

The configuration script begins by asking whether a root user should be created:

• If you answer yes, you have the option to also create a non-root user.
• If you answer no, you are forced to create a non-root user.

Later on, the account creation script checks to see if you have decided to create a root user:

• If you have, a root user is created with traditional, implicit administrative privileges. If you have also opted to create a non-root user, that user is created without sudo permissions.
• If you've decided not to create a root user, the non-root user is created with sudo permissions.

This behavior can be complicated by preeseed configurations.

Answer 2

Ubuntu now uses the sudo group rather then the admin group for sudo access.

Post the output of:

id <user>

Where user is the user created with the oem-config ;)

See also What is the difference between the 'sudo' and 'admin' group?