12.04 will not let me log in

**unsuper** · November 10th, 2012

I went through the process of changing my username on root and after rebooting, my user name was still the same.
I then went back on root and changed the home folder name with the -md /home/newuser command
Then after rebooting again, it still had my old name and now on top of that, it bumbs me back to lighDM after entering my password
I tried loging in manually, by entering my new username and it's still the same result

I'll settle for being able to log into my account alone, but if anyone can also help me to change the name at the topright to my current username I'd be thankfull

**unsuper** · November 10th, 2012

Also note that I haven't updated
I tried doing this from the login menue ctrl+alt+f1 and the update was unsually short, then I did sudo new-release-upgrade (w/e the command is) and it said there were no upgrades
LightDM also still says I'm in 12.04

**westie457** · November 10th, 2012

Hi welcome to the forum.

This link might be of use with the password.
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword

As for upgrading to a newer version a clean install is usually the preferred method as this avoids many conflicts with various file versions. Most upgrades go through with no issues, some do not.

If you really want to upgrade to a newer version the recommended way is open the Software Centre. Go to the Edit menu and select Software Sources.

In the updates tab at the bottom of the window is 'Notify me of a new Ubuntu version. In that box select 'any new version'. Close out of that.

Now open a terminal using Ctrl+Alt+T and run in this order

Code:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

The first command updates the repositories

The second upgrades the existing installation

The third gives you the newer version (in this case 12.10)

**NikTh** · November 10th, 2012

A correction here.

The command

Code:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

will not upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu. It will upgrade the state of current packages and resolve (handle more "smart") the dependencies so none of packages will held back.

Code:

man apt-get

for more info.

The command to upgrade to a newer release of Ubuntu through terminal is

Code:

sudo do-release-upgrade

Also see here some advices in order to upgrade as "painlessly" as possible.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/20330.../203302#203302

Thanks

**unsuper** · November 10th, 2012

The main thing is that I can't log in, and there's no problems with the password. Like I said it just bumps be back into lightDM (after the screen goes black, like it usually does when I get logged in)
Or are you guys saying that an update will allow me to log in?

I have to work around the house for a few more hours and I'll try simply updating it when I get back, if that's the case

**unsuper** · November 10th, 2012

Originally Posted by NikTh

[code]sudo do-release-upgrade[/code]Also see here some advices in order to upgrade as "painlessly" as possible.

Thanks

Like I mentioned I tried the sudo do-release-upgrade, and it said there was nothing to upgrade
But like i said this isn't the main problem

Anyway I'll try in a bit

**unsuper** · November 11th, 2012

Ok so "sudo apt-get update" tells me there was something wrong with the signature and I basically still "have the same files"
"sudo do-release-upgrade" tells me that there are no new releases available (I forget the exact words)

I've seen something about replacing LightDM with the older version so I might try that
Again the main problem is that I can't log in to my account and the account available doesn't even have the new username

Any help is greatly appreciated

**steeldriver** · November 11th, 2012

I'm having a hard time understanding what you did exactly, but it sounds like you may now have a mismatch between the owner name and/or UID of the home dir compared to the name / UID of the account i.e.

Code:

$ ls -l /home/username

versus

Code:

$ id username

**unsuper** · November 11th, 2012

Originally Posted by steeldriver

I'm having a hard time understanding what you did exactly, but it sounds like you may now have a mismatch between the owner name and/or UID of the home dir compared to the name / UID of the account i.e.

Code:

$ ls -l /home/username

versus

Code:

$ id username

I used

Code:

 usermod -m -d /home/newname -lnewname oldname

It changed the username, but not the displayed name (the one you see at log in and on the top left)
Then I did

Code:

 usermod -md /home/username

And it would let me log in at all

I now ubdated via root and logged in, but it still has my old name displayed while showing me my new name in the terminal
The main thing I wanted in the first place was just a new display name

How do I achieve this?