Account is currently unavailable...so says my shell window

Hello…so…everything was fine…all of a sudden, when I go to the shell, it is either black, or give this odd message…I´m logged in with my admin account (tried others)…tried ssh from my pc…same thing…no idea what that can be…any ideas? Rebooted…changed user…clicked that Reconnect button…to no avail. System is otherwise working fine. TN 24.04.
Thanks!

What the internet says it means:
The message This account is currently not available comes from the nologin command. Often, system or daemon accounts will be set up with this as their shell (instead of e.g. bash ) to prevent interactive login.

Someone does not want you to be able to log in with that account?

I see a discrepancy.

You say you are using TrueNAS 24.04 (SCALE) yet the system is indicating BSD is running (CORE).

With that said, you may need to use the Console to fix the issue.

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Thanks for the response….it’s Scale. Maybe it’s an inherited generic message.
How do I use the console to fix it? It’s now an intermittent problem, sometime shows, sometimes not…wired.

Use the UI and check what the shell of the user “andre” is set to.

I’ll look into it, thanks!

This should not be your go-to solution in TrueNAS.
Most things you are meant to alter are available in the GUI.

I agree with your point of view, however I feel I need to state my point of view, and I’m a cynic I guess.

I made an assumption the end user is not an authorized user (hence the error message) and is trying to hack into the system. If they have console (physical) access then I am hopeful they are authorized and that is the solution path I selected. And the discrepancy of the screens factored into that. TrueNAS Core or Scale?

I am very security conscientious in my line of government work. I scrutinize everything and discrepancies are red flags to me. And while the OP may be legitimate, I try to offer a method for a legitimate user to resolve the issue. If they are not legitimate, well I offered a method which may be unobtainable for them.

I hope people are honest however we all know, there are snakes in the grass.

Just my cynical mind at work.

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A bit of cynicism is healthy. :slight_smile:

It’s not super intuitive, but that BSD copyright blurb in the welcome message is actually part of the message even in SCALE, I didn’t realise that until I checked just now.

Newer versions of SCALE have the MOTD updated to explicitly state that it’s GPLv3 (not BSD licensed).

Is that for a fresh install? I know my SCALE has the GPLv3 blurb and it was a fresh SCALE install from a while ago. Okay, a bit off topic.

FWIW, my install is based on 22.02.X Angelfish and has been upgraded in steps, currently still on 24.04 Dragonfish.

OP here…yes, I’m an authorized, and only user, this is a home installation. And since I’m inside TN Scale GUI, logged as myself, with all administrative rights, I guess it’s safe to assume that my account is connected…
That’s why I’m having a hard time figuring it out…

Check the configured shell in the UI.

What does the Edit User screen look like for andre?

Somehow the shell is back online again, by it’s own will. Iḿ logged as admin.
The shell for the user admin is /usr/bin/zsh
I for user andre is /usr/sbin/nologin.
Both with Sharing Admin, Full Admin, Has Allow List roles.
Just logged out from admin and logged as andre. Back to black screen, Logged as admin again and about a minute later the shell works.
So I just found out how to configure the shell for each users under credentials…one more thing learned in TNas, thanks to you all…now, should I live it as zsh or better live as TrueNAs CLI?

NO! LOL, I never assume anything as it leads to problems. I hope you are able to figure it out. Good luck.

If you’re not sure whether you need to use zsh or the truenas CLI, are you absolutely certain you actually need shell access for this account? Generally the rule of thumb is to not grant extra permissions if you don’t need them.

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I try not to mess with these things, as I am by no means a Linux expert. If I can stick to the GUI tools, I will. But sometimes things just do not work, at least for me, and I need this extra reach. E.g., I was setting up a direct Ethernet connection between TN and my Linux desktop, and it wouldn’t activate just by saving the the network connection on the GUI. When I regained control over the CLI, first time I logged in there was a message for me to enter “ network interface commit” command, and then it started working. Maybe it was something I could have done in the GUI, but as I said, I’m not an expert. Commands like ip a, lspci and others usually help me figuring things out and solving problems…and I learn a lot in the process…