3 minute read

It seems renaming a user on Linux isn’t quite a trivial affair! So, following guides found on Reddit, and on nixCraft the following seemed to work for me.

TL;DR: Here are the commands you need (to rename the user chrx to dave):

~ $ sudo adduser tmpuser
~ $ sudo usermod -a -G sudo tmpuser

Log-out from the original user, then log in as tmpuser

~ $ ps -u chrx
~ $ sudo pkill -u chrx
~ $ sudo pkill -9 -u chrx
~ $ ps -u chrx
~ $ sudo usermod -l dave chrx
~ $ sudo groupmod -n dave chrx
~ $ sudo usermod -d /home/dave -m dave
~ $ sudo passwd dave

Log-out from tmpuser, then log in as the new user

~ $ sudo deluser --remove-home tmpuser

First, create a new, temporary user, and give them sudo powers:

~ $ sudo adduser tmpuser
[sudo] password for chrx: 
Adding user `tmpuser' ...
Adding new group `tmpuser' (1001) ...
Adding new user `tmpuser' (1001) with group `tmpuser' ...
Enter new UNIX password: 
Retype new UNIX password: 
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for tmpuser
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
	Full Name []: 
	Room Number []: 
	Work Phone []: 
	Home Phone []: 
	Other []: 
Is the information correct? [Y/n] y
~ $ sudo usermod -a -G sudo tmpuser

Then log-out from the original user, and log in as the temporary user tmpuser. First up, it’s probably worth checking the set-up for the original user (chrx):

~ $ id chrx
uid=1000(chrx) gid=1000(chrx) groups=1000(chrx),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),116(lpadmin)
~ $ grep '^chrx:' /etc/passwd
chrx:x:1000:1000::/home/chrx:/bin/bash
~ $ grep 'chrx' /etc/group
adm:x:4:syslog,chrx
cdrom:x:24:chrx
sudo:x:27:chrx,tmpuser
dip:x:30:chrx
plugdev:x:46:chrx
lpadmin:x:116:chrx
chrx:x:1000:
~ $ groups chrx
chrx : chrx adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin
~ $ ls -ld /home/chrx
drwxr-xr-x 16 chrx chrx 4096 Sep 24 18:43 /home/chrx

Confirm that the original user chrx doesn’t have any running processes:

~ $ ps aux | grep chrx
tmpuser   1411  0.0  0.0  23564  1080 pts/0    S+   18:46   0:00 grep --color=auto chrx
~ $ ps -u chrx
  PID TTY          TIME CMD

If there are some, stop them with:

~ $ sudo pkill -u chrx
~ $ sudo pkill -9 -u chrx
~ $ ps -u chrx
  PID TTY          TIME CMD

Use usermod to rename the user chrx to dave:

~ $ sudo usermod -l dave chrx
[sudo] password for tmpuser:

If you want to check that that’s worked:

~ $ id chrx
id: ‘chrx’: no such user
~ $ id dave
uid=1000(dave) gid=1000(chrx) groups=1000(chrx),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),116(lpadmin)
~ $ ls -ld /home/chrx
drwxr-xr-x 16 dave chrx 4096 Sep 24 18:43 /home/chrx

Next, use groupmod to rename the group chrx to dave:

~ $ sudo groupmod -n dave chrx
~ $ id dave
uid=1000(dave) gid=1000(dave) groups=1000(dave),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),116(lpadmin)
~ $ ls -ld /home/chrx
drwxr-xr-x 16 dave dave 4096 Sep 24 18:43 /home/chrx

Next, use usermod to move dave’s home directory (from /home/chrx) to /home/dave:

~ $ grep '^dave:' /etc/passwd
dave:x:1000:1000::/home/chrx:/bin/bash
~ $ sudo usermod -d /home/dave -m dave
~ $ grep '^dave:' /etc/passwd
dave:x:1000:1000::/home/dave:/bin/bash

Check that everything looks good:

~ $ grep 'dave' /etc/group
adm:x:4:syslog,dave
cdrom:x:24:dave
sudo:x:27:tmpuser,dave
dip:x:30:dave
plugdev:x:46:dave
lpadmin:x:116:dave
dave:x:1000:
~ $ grep 'chrx' /etc/group
~ $ groups chrx
groups: ‘chrx’: no such user
~ $ groups dave
dave : dave adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin
~ $ ls -ld /home/chrx
ls: cannot access '/home/chrx': No such file or directory
~ $ ls -ld /home/dave
drwxr-xr-x 16 dave dave 4096 Sep 24 18:43 /home/dave

Finally, if necessary, change the password for dave:

~ $ sudo passwd dave
Enter new UNIX password: 
Retype new UNIX password: 
passwd: password updated successfully
~ $

Then you can log out from tmpuser, and log in as dave! Once you are happy that everything has worked, you can delete tmpuser:

~ $ sudo deluser --remove-home tmpuser
Looking for files to backup/remove ...
Removing files ...
Removing user `tmpuser' ...
Warning: group `tmpuser' has no more members.
Done.

When logging in as the new user for the first time on GalliumOS, I got a pop-up message saying that the Configured directory for incoming files does not exist. This seems to have been covered on AskUbuntu, solving the problem either with a GUI window or in a terminal window.

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