Create a Non-Root User with sudo Privileges

Add a Non-Root User

On Ubuntu / Debian based systems, creating a non-root user with sudo privileges is quite straight forward. 

First, we'll create our non-root user with the command

adduser <username>

where you replace <username> above with your actual name or username.   In my case I would do

adduser brian

Enter a strong password for your user, then confirm the password. Enter the additional information if you like, though it's not required. Finally, accept the settings with 'Y'.

Add the user to the sudo group

To add our user to the sudo group we'll use the command:

usermod -aG sudo <username>

Where, again, you'll replace <username> with your name or username.  In my case it would be

usermod -aG sudo brian

Now, you can log out and log back in as your new non-root user.