user does not exist in /etc/passwd when trying to change the default shell

Question

I want to change my default shell from tcsh to bash. So I tried and this is what happened:

>sudo chsh userid
Changing the login shell for userid
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
        Login Shell [/xhbin/tcsh]: /bin/bash
chsh: user 'userid' does not exist in /etc/passwd

Indeed, I am not in /etc/passwd. I don't know why.

What can I do?

Answer 1

My computer is part of a network using distributed authentication, so my user details would not appear in the local /etc/passwd file (but are visible using getent passwd userid) (thanks @steeldriver). In my case I had to do chsh on a core machine.

Answer 2

There is a workaround for gnome-terminal:

1. Go to Edit → Profile preferences → Title and Command.
2. Check Run a custom command instead of my shell.
3. Provide bash as the Custom command (or fish, or anything).

Answer 3

If you are trying to ssh into a remote host with a domain user, you might not be able to change your shell using chsh as @Masoud mentioned. But here is a simple workaround for this case - whenever you ssh into the machine, do this:

ssh my-host -t "zsh --login"

or

ssh my-host -t "cd /data/repos; zsh --login"

If you also want to login directly into a different working dir.

Edit:

Another simple option that does not require ssh command manipulation:

• Edit your profile file: vi ~/.profile
• Launch your favorite shall by calling it at the last line, e.g. zsh
• Save and quit (:wq)

This solution also has the advantage that it persists when creating new sub-shells, for example when using tmux.

Answer 4

If you are using LDAP authentication by PAM or something, you have to find your answer in your LDAP Server. Let's aim it for Microsoft AD, in which case your domain account is not in /etc/passwd when you log in, but you can see your user property in AD, by getent passwd | grep user.

If at the end it shows your shell is /bin/csh, that's because in your AD there is a attribute for that. So if you have administrator account on AD, you can fix it yourself. Otherwise just tell your AD admin to enable advance features in the View tab of Active directory users and computers > User properties > UNIX attributes. There you can change the login shell to /bin/bash.

Be sure you don't forget to run:

sudo /opt/pbis/bin/config LoginShellTemplate /bin/bash

Source: User does not exist in /etc/passwd when trying to change the default shell.

Answer 5

If you want to change the shell for your user, you do not need to become root. Just type:

chsh

without sudo and without arguments.

---

See also man chsh:

The chsh command changes the user login shell. This determines the name
of the user's initial login command. A normal user may only change the
login shell for her own account; the superuser may change the login
shell for any account.

Answer 6

My machine is using LDAP authentication and I don't have access to the server. So my workaround was to change $SHELL variable to zsh at the end of my .bashrc file. $SHELL=/bin/zsh $SHELL So for me when I open terminal bash opens zsh.

Answer 7

If you forgot your user name, you can use whoami command to remember you.

So, try with:

sudo chsh $(whoami)

If indeed, doesn't exist a line starting with your user name in /etc/passwd file (which seems inexplicable), you can add a new one like this:

username:x:1000:1000:your real name,,,:/home/username:/bin/bash

See also: Understanding /etc/passwd File Format.

Answer 8

Open the file ~/.bashrc and add this at the end :

# Run zsh
if [ "$SHELL" != "/usr/bin/zsh" ]
then
    export SHELL="/usr/bin/zsh"
    exec /usr/bin/zsh
fi

Don't forget to configure zsh :

• By typing "zsh" in a bash terminal.
• Or by creating the file ~/.zshrc with default content

Answer 9

This answer helped me.

In your ~/.profile add

if [ "$SHELL" != "/bin/bash" ]
then
    export SHELL="/bin/bash"
    exec /bin/bash -l    # -l: login shell again
fi

Or whatever other shell you want to use

Answer 10

the solution for active directory accounts is as follows:

$vim ~/.bashrc

and add this at the end :

if [ "$SHELL" != "/usr/bin/zsh" ] then export SHELL="/usr/bin/zsh" exec /usr/bin/zsh fi