Comments on: Linux: How do you rename a user account in linux?

By: rishi

rishi — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:48:21 +0000

How to reset the root password in linux:

http://reddragon-linux.blogspot.com/2011/05/linux-resetting-root-user-password.html

By: alaakhalaf

alaakhalaf — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 01:07:40 +0000

Hallo all
I think firs you should install package ‘libuser’ using this command
sudo apt-get install libuser
and then execute this command
sudo lusermod -l newname oldname

By: noiamsamiam

noiamsamiam — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:05:28 +0000

@kopper
Your instructions were a big help for me to rename my user and move my home folder on 9.10

Using kopper’s instructions my approach was this for Ubuntu 9.10

1. Login to your user account
2. Go to Menu System > Administration > Users and Groups
3. Unlock by clicking on keys “Unlock to make changes”
4. Enter your user account password when prompted
5. User settings now unlocked > Select Add User
6. In Basic Settings tab define you new username for your admin account and real name (This is the friendly name you are shown in the Ubuntu 9.10 login screen
7. Select the profile drop down box and select administrator
8. Create your new password (something decent since this account has more privileges than the standard desktop account)
9. Logout of your current account
10. At Ubuntu login screen login to the newly created admin account
11. Open a terminal window from Menu Applications > Accessories > Terminal
12. type command sudo -i to get root access
13. execute command killall -u oldaccountusername
14. execute command id oldaccount username
15. execute command usermod -l newaccountusername oldaccountusername
16. execute command groupmod -n newaccountusername oldaccountusername
17. execute command usermod -d /home/newaccountusername -m newaccountusername
18. execute usermod -c “New User Account Friendly Name for Logon Screen” newaccountusername
19. execute id new
20. execute ls /home/ and you should see a new home folder matching the new username that you changed from the old username and if you ls /home/newaccountusername you should see the all the files and folders that were in the home folder for your oldaccountusername
21. close the terminal window
22. logout of the adminuser account on Ubuntu
23. Ubuntu login screen should now show only the admin account and your changed useraccountname.
24. Login in to this user account using your old password from the same account before it was renamed.
25. You should now be logged in to your account under the new username and have access to all the same files, settings and applications as the account before it was renamed.

I’m sure there is a quicker approach to achieve this but this is what worked for me.

Thanks again to kopper who contributed the nuts and bolts of getting this working

By: kopper

kopper — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:06:11 +0000

would this be enough

killall -u old
id old
usermod -l new old
groupmod -n new old
usermod -d /home/new -m new
usermod -c “New Real Name” new
id new

By: Eu

Eu — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:00:12 +0000

Sorry but this article is misleading, first says theres no way to change the username in linux and then crosses that, then gives a manual procedure which is absolutely not pratical because all of it can be done with a single linux command… i suspect that simply replacing all the text in this article with: “usermod -l old_name new_name” would do us all a great favor!

By: Johan L. Cerezo

Johan L. Cerezo — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:39:39 +0000

Additional info, If your linux box is a mail server, you must also change the name of the file found in /var/spool/mail. Example from above joe to john. So you can still retrieve your old mail found in your inbox using thunderbird, outlook(client) and alike.

By: sapphirecat

sapphirecat — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:06:52 +0000

I’d still only recommend this for a new user, not one who is established. Last time I did this, I had a number of problems with things which had hardcoded the equivalent of /home/joe/… into their configuration. (Mozilla in particular. I had to start afresh there, and it was painful. But maybe they’ve fixed that in the intervening 5 years.)

By: Sunny Walia

Sunny Walia — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:17:19 +0000

Thanks for the great information Stoner.

By: Stoner

Stoner — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:29:47 +0000

I left out an important clause from my last paragraph. You need to find and change ownership of files if you change the UID or GID numbers for a user.

By: Stoner

Stoner — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:25:35 +0000

The comment from ’she’ is correct. The usermod command will let you do just about everything. If you find that you must edit the passwd or group files, you should never use vi to edit them. Instead, you should use vipw and vigr for that. After editing, they will prompt you to edit the shadow files as well. They do a few others things, like making sure the temporary file used is more secure from prying eyes and general naughtiness.

Another thing to note, if the user created files or directories outside of their home directory before the username changed, you’ll need to find those files and change the ownership. A few that spring to mind are mail in the /var/mail directory, crontab files and at jobs.

By: Sunny Walia

Sunny Walia — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:35:55 +0000

Yeah as I updated the post, there is a utility: usermod

By: she

she — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:09:19 +0000

hmm the linux tools should take care of that IMO