Can't Change Home Directory in TrueNAS: A Guide for Userx Example

Here's a detailed guide on using SSH with TrueNAS and setting up a user (userxexample). This example assumes that the $HOME variable is not configured for the user.

Title: Setting Up SSH for a User on TrueNAS (userxexample)

Introduction

In this guide, we will walk you through the process of setting up SSH for a user on TrueNAS. We will use the example user userxexample. If the $HOME variable is not configured for this user, we will show you how to set it.

Prerequisites

• Access to the TrueNAS web interface
• Root or administrative access to TrueNAS

Steps

1. Log in to the TrueNAS web interface

   Navigate to your TrueNAS web interface using a web browser. The default IP address is 192.168.1.xx. Replace xx with your TrueNAS IP address.

2. Create a new user

   • Go to System > Users
   • Click on Add User
   • Fill in the necessary details:
     • Username: userxexample
     • Password: Set a strong password
     • Home Directory: /mnt/data0/etc/passwd (or any other directory you prefer)
     • UID: Leave it as 1000 or a higher number
     • GID: Leave it as 100 or a higher number
   • Click on Save

3. Edit the new user

   • Go to System > Users
   • Find the newly created user userxexample
   • Click on Edit
   • Scroll down to the Shell field
   • Change the shell to /usr/local/sbin/nologin (this will prevent the user from logging in via the console)
   • Click on Save

4. Install OpenSSH

   • Go to System > Software
   • Search for openssh
   • Click on Install

5. Configure SSH for the user

   • Open a terminal session (e.g., PuTTY or Terminal)
   • Connect to your TrueNAS server using SSH
   • Enter the following command to navigate to the user's home directory:

     cd /mnt/data0/etc/passwd
     

   • Edit the user's passwd file using your preferred text editor (e.g., nano, vim):

     nano userxexample
     

   • Locate the SSH_AUTH_SOCK and SSH_AGENT_PID lines. If they are not present, add them:

     SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/var/run/sshd/agent.sock
     SSH_AGENT_PID=65534
     

   • Save and close the file

6. Test the SSH connection

   • Still in the terminal session, try to connect to the server as the new user:

     ssh userxexample@<TrueNAS_IP>
     

   • You should be prompted for a password
   • If the connection is successful, you will be logged in as the new user

Summary

In this guide, we showed you how to set up SSH for a user on TrueNAS. We created a new user, installed OpenSSH, and configured SSH for the user by setting up the necessary environment variables in the user's passwd file.

References

• TrueNAS Documentation: Setting Up SSH
• TrueNAS Documentation: Managing Users
• OpenSSH Manual Page