Unknown groups in SLES

Problem:

On SLES 11 SP 1, while trying to add users with the useradd command, the following is displayed:

useradd: Unknown group `video’.
useradd: Unknown group `dialout’.

Background & Analysis:

The “video” and “dialout” groups are default groups in SLES. This is configured in /etc/default/useradd.

These groups were removed from /etc/group using the groupadd command although the useradd command uses them as default groups.

Solution:

STEP 1: Modify /etc/default/useradd

Edit /etc/default/useradd and remove video and dialout from the GROUPS directive. After doing so, my /etc/default/useradd looks like this (I have removed the GROUPS directive as I do not want default groups):

GROUP=100
HOME=/home
INACTIVE=-1
EXPIRE=
SHELL=/bin/bash
SKEL=/etc/skel
CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=yes