I have created users for my unit tests in two ways: 
1) Create a fixture for "auth.user" that looks roughly like this: 
    { 
        "pk": 1, 
        "model": "auth.user", 
        "fields": { 
            "username": "homer", 
            "is_active": 1, 
            "password": 
"sha1$72cd3$4935449e2cd7efb8b3723fb9958fe3bb100a30f2", 
            ... 
        } 
    }
I've left out the seemingly unimportant parts. 
2) Use 'create_user' in the setUp function (although I'd rather keep 
everything in my fixtures class): 
def setUp(self): 
       User.objects.create_user('homer', '
[email protected]', 'simpson') 
Note that the password is simpson in both cases. 
I've verified that this info is correctly being loaded into the test database time and time again. I can grab the User object using User.objects.get. I can verify the password is correct using 'check_password.' The user is active. 
Yet, invariably, self.client.login(username='homer', password='simpson') FAILS. I'm baffled as to why. I think I've read every single Internet discussion pertaining to this. Can anybody help? 
The login code in my unit test looks like this: 
    login = self.client.login(username='homer', password='simpson') 
    self.assertTrue(login) 
Thanks.