Changing the hostname
Change the hostname in the following two files:
(You'll need to use sudo
to edit these files. Eg. sudo nano /etc/hostname
)
Changing the username
First, set a password for root:
sudo su
passwd root
Then reboot the machine. When you see the login screen, switch to a virtual terminal using CtrlAltF4. Login with the username root
and the password you set previously.
It's now safe to change the username using the following three steps:
Rename the user:
usermod -l newUsername oldUsername
Change the name of the user directory and all daughter directories to match the new username and update the filepaths:
mv /home/oldUsername* /home/newUsername*
Update the user database:
usermod -d /home/newUsername* -m newUsername