Renaming user name

Question

I made a mistake in the username at the time of installation. So I changed the name of the user after logging in by creating a guest account with SUDO rights. But when I checked the list of users using ls /home command I am not seeing the new name for the user instead Old name is appearing. But I use the new name to login.

Is it like I need to change the name inside Home directory separately? Also , if there is any other changes needs to be done .. ?

Answer 1

Procedure to rename or change username in Ubuntu:

If running as the user to be modified, logout first, then open a console:

Press Ctrl+Alt+F1

Otherwise, simply open a new Terminal:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T

And run:

exec sudo -i
killall -u oldname
id oldname
usermod -l newname oldname
groupmod -n newname oldname
usermod -d /home/newname -m newname
usermod -c "New_real_name" newname
id newname

Example:

sudo -i
killall -u belaje
id belaje
uid=1000(belaje) gid=1000(belaje) groups=1000(belaje),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),109(lpadmin),127(sambashare)
usermod -l  balaja belaje
groupmod -n balaja belaje
usermod -d /home/balaja -m  balaja
usermod -c "Bala Jagannathan" balaja
id balaja

Whenever you want to get back from console version to graphical version:

Press Ctrl+Alt+F7

Answer 2

on the server this worked for me:

sudo usermod -md /home/NewHome -l NewName OldName
sudo groupmod -n NewGroupName OldGroupName

This renames the user and its group and also the home folder.

Answer 3

This works, but a lot of the apps will break because they specifically call for the /home/oldusername; many individual software authors don't use variables to call their configs, they directly specify oldusername not $HOME. Chrome, GTK and firefox break like this. Don't forget your keyrings will have the old credentials as well... I'm not sure how to back those up.... maybe export them?

So, I end up doing the following to change username - man i wish i knew an easier way.

• as olduser, sign in to chrome and firefox to sync out the settings
• using users and groups in Settings, create user killmenow with pass of same, make him admin, reboot and log in as killmenow.
• open terminal, riun sudo i, then mkdir /home/newusername and making it the same uid:gid as the oldusername
• Move usercreatedfiles.xyz, Desktop, Downloads, and other dirs containing created files like docs, pics, music, movies, etc in /home/oldusername/ to /home/newusername.
• Find out any specific apps with particular settings... Helpful to pay attention here :) user will likely bean you with a phonebook if you lose their files ;)
• vi /etc/passwd and /etc/group to reference newusername and /home/newusername
• passwd newusername and enter a temporary password twice reboot and log in as newusername, password being what you entered in the previous point.
• delete killmenow using "users and groups" in Settings.

wait until some time passes before deleting /home/oldusername - in case you missed important stuff... or move it to /home/newusername/Downloads and tell them

mv /home/oldusername /home/newusername/Downloads/oldusername-backup

Answer 4

Please try the below to change the user name in home directory,

usermod -d /home/newHomeDir -m newUsername

Hope this helps !