Adding a New User

Why

If you're sharing Stretch with other developers, it can be helpful to create separate accounts for yourself and your team members. Your code and data will be password protected in your own account, and other developers can modify their own code without accidentally affecting yours.

!!! warning

User accounts cannot completely insulate your account from changes in another. For example, if someone attaches a new gripper or end-effector tool to the robot, your account's software would have an outdated configuration for what tool is attached to the robot. A non-exhaustive list of changes that could break/affect accounts:

  - Making hardware changes to the robot
  - Updating the firmware
  - Installing/changing [APT packages](#apt-package-manager)

How

From the admin account, open a terminal and pull down the latest Stretch Install repository:

cd ~/stretch4_install && git pull

Run the new user install script and provide the new username using the -u flag. This will automatically create the user account (prompting for their new password), provide them admin privileges, set up their home directory, and install the new user environment:

./stretch_new_user_install.sh -u new_developer_name

Finally, log out and log back in as the new user account. Reboot the robot and run a system check to confirm everything was set up correctly.

stretch_system_check.py

Your new user account is now set up successfully!

Manually add a new user

If you would like to manually create the new user and setup the account, you can follow the steps below:

Start by logging into the admin Hello Robot user. Go to Users system settings and unlock adminstrator actions.

Click "Add User..." and complete the subsequent form. The new user needs to be an administrator.

Log out and back in as the new user. Open a terminal and execute the following to pull down the Stretch Install repository:

git clone https://github.com/hello-robot/stretch4_install ~/stretch4_install

Make sure it's up-to-date:

cd ~/stretch4_install && git pull

Run the new user install script to set up the SDK for this new account:

./stretch_new_user_install.sh

Finally, reboot the robot and run a system check in the new user account to confirm everything was set up correctly.

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