diff --git a/doc/source/guides/single-machine.rst b/doc/source/guides/single-machine.rst
index 011c41fbce..48a4fa8b12 100644
--- a/doc/source/guides/single-machine.rst
+++ b/doc/source/guides/single-machine.rst
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ below)
 
 ::
 
-    adduser stack
+    useradd -s /bin/bash -d /opt/stack -m stack
 
 Since this user will be making many changes to your system, it will need
 to have sudo privileges:
diff --git a/doc/source/index.rst b/doc/source/index.rst
index edd6595da2..f8d500813e 100644
--- a/doc/source/index.rst
+++ b/doc/source/index.rst
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ You can quickly create a separate `stack` user to run DevStack with
 
 ::
 
-   $ sudo adduser stack
+   $ sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -d /opt/stack -m stack
 
 Since this user will be making many changes to your system, it should
 have sudo privileges: