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TL;DR --> I want to know how to make an old account show up after reinstallation of Ubuntu so that I can log in to that account and not have to reinstall all the other software I had installed on that account already.

I installed kubuntu-desktop once my ubuntu installation was done. I became unhappy with it and so I un-installed it.

To un-install it I re-logged in to the unity workspace stuff and removed all the KDE packages.

When I restarted my PC the ubuntu loading screen would show and then the screen would go blank, since I assumed that this means that the computer is not hung up and working I pressed Alt-Shift-F5 to open the shell. I couldn't find a way to make the greeter show up. I checked whether or not it was installed, and it was installed.

Since I couldn't find a solution to it I loaded the LiveUSB and reinstalled Ubuntu. But this time I couldn't use the already set up account (abc) again when it asked me to make an account, so I made a new account abc_new

After installation the login screen came up just fine but I was expecting account abc to be part of the list of logginable accounts. But its not there.

I want to know how to make it show up so that I don't have to reinstall all the other software I had installed already?

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If your reinstall of Ubuntu from the LiveUSB included a format of your hard drive, and if you don't have a backup stored somewhere other than the hard disk you reinstalled to, your old account and software are gone. If that is the case, you will need to create a new account and reinstall your software. You can read your /etc/passwd file to see if your old account is listed. If the account name is not in the passwd file, then the account doesn't exist in your newly installed Ubuntu.

$ cat /etc/passwd

or

$ less /etc/passwd

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  • I did not format The command does not list my old account, but /home/ contains the home folder for the previous account. Apr 17, 2014 at 21:18
  • You should be able to use usermod command to change the home directory if your new user account to the old account's home directory, if you want to. Or you can use useradd to make a new account and set its home as the previous accounts' home. I don't know the exact syntax off the top of my head, but the man page should give you the right syntax to use. $ man usermod $ man useradd
    – jdelaporte
    Apr 18, 2014 at 1:40
  • More specifically: To add user that has access to existing directory, first check numeric user owner of the existing directory. Use -M to prevent creation of a new user home directory, like the following: useradd --home /home/existinghomedir --uid sameUID# -M sameusername
    – jdelaporte
    Feb 11, 2016 at 20:41

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