Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Upgraded but created different username and computer name

Asked by AtariBaby

Recently my ubuntu machine started performing badly. I'm a total n00b.

I read about using the LiveCD, ejecting the mounts, and installing again, to fix issues. I did this, selecting options to keep files and programs, and when prompted, I upgraded to 12.10.

All went well, but at the end it asked me for a username and computername. I forgot I already had those, and I supplied different ones.

Looking through the directory structure of the machine, can see my old username and all its folders and files appear to be intact. However, if I log out of the new, mistaken user, I can't login as the old user. How can I fix this?

And should I try to rename the computer back to what it was before the upgrade?

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AtariBaby
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Revision history for this message
Thomas Krüger (thkrueger) said : 		#1

The hostname is not important for normal usage. It can get important if you want to run server software. But as long as you don't do that you don't need to worry about it.

About the usernames and passwords:
If I read it correctly, you have a new fully working account, but you want the old account back.
You can get at a list of all users by opening the Terminal application and running:

getent passwd

The username is in the first field, the numeric ID in the third. On Ubuntu IDs ≥ 1000 are "normal" users. IDs below and 65534 are system users for servers and services.
Now see if there are actually two user accounts in that range. It should be most likely IDs 1000 and 1001 then.

If you have two accounts, you can reset the password of the other user with this command in the Terminal:

sudo passwd username

Replace "username" with the real username and type the new password twice. Nothing will be echoed (no *** will be shown).

If you don't see a second username, please run the exact command below (use copy & paste) in the Terminal and copy the full output for us. We will tell you how to recover the old user profile.

id; stat /home/*; getent passwd | fgrep bash

Thanks!

Revision history for this message
AtariBaby (launchdad) said : 		#2

didn't see it in the list. FYI the username with all my files and programs in it is misterfantastic

uid=1000(ataribaby) gid=1000(ataribaby) groups=1000(ataribaby),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),107(lpadmin),124(sambashare)
  File: `/home/ataribaby'
  Size: 4096 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 directory
Device: 801h/2049d Inode: 3088386 Links: 21
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 1000/ataribaby) Gid: ( 1000/ataribaby)
Access: 2013-02-14 22:52:55.813571132 -0800
Modify: 2013-02-15 07:37:47.379133237 -0800
Change: 2013-02-15 07:37:47.379133237 -0800
 Birth: -
  File: `/home/misterfantastic'
  Size: 4096 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 directory
Device: 801h/2049d Inode: 3014658 Links: 49
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 1000/ataribaby) Gid: ( 1000/ataribaby)
Access: 2013-02-14 21:53:20.890549241 -0800
Modify: 2013-02-14 21:34:03.215410964 -0800
Change: 2013-02-14 21:34:03.215410964 -0800
 Birth: -
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
ataribaby:x:1000:1000:,,,:/home/ataribaby:/bin/bash

Revision history for this message
AtariBaby (launchdad) said : 		#3

I went ahead and got further help here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2116662

many steps and mixed results. I'm in full control of username, but having to basically reinstall every program, the upshot being that the previous configuration and other details are mostly intact once i do so. Thank you for your time.