How to Create Guest Account on Ubuntu 25.04

Ubuntu 25.04 doesn’t offer built-in guest sessions by default, but you can still create a separate limited user for temporary or controlled access. A guest account lets someone use your machine without seeing your private data or changing your system settings.

Step 1: Create a limited user

Start by adding a new user account. This account will serve as the guest, with its own home folder and no admin access:

sudo adduser guest user

 

Set a password when prompted. You can skip the full name and other details by pressing Enter.

Step 2: Revoke admin rights

To ensure the guest user stays restricted, remove it from any privileged groups like sudo:

sudo del user sudo

This prevents the guest from making system-wide changes.

Step 3: Limit access to your files

By default, other users may access your home directory. You can fix this by adjusting permissions:

sudo chmod 750 /home/yourusername

Replace your username with your actual account name. This protects your private files from being read by the guest.

Step 4: Assign a login shell

The guest user needs a shell to use the terminal. You can keep the default shell or assign a different one:

sudo usermod -s /bin/bash guestuser

Later, you can change it to /usr/sbin/nologin to block access completely.

Step 5: Clean up the guest’s files optional

If the guest user is for short-term use, you might want to wipe its files afterward. This is helpful for shared systems:

sudo rm -rf /home/guestuser/*

You can also automate this cleanup with a cron job or a logout script.

Optional Step: Disable GUI login

In some cases, you may want to prevent the guest user from logging in through the graphical interface:

sudo usermod -s /usr/sbin/nologin guestuser

This disables both terminal and desktop login but keeps the user on the system for future use.