AtariBaby
February 16th, 2013, 05:37 PM
1. Recently my ubuntu machine started performing badly. BTW 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, I can see my old username and all its folders and files appear to be intact. However, if I log out of the new, wrong user, I can't login as the old, original user. How can I fix this?
2. I got the following help on the problem:
Thomas Krüger:
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
3. I didn't see the username in the list, so I did the second command. 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),3 0(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
4. That's where I'm at, and I would like to get this fixed while I have time this morning. Can anyone tell me what to do next?
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, I can see my old username and all its folders and files appear to be intact. However, if I log out of the new, wrong user, I can't login as the old, original user. How can I fix this?
2. I got the following help on the problem:
Thomas Krüger:
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
3. I didn't see the username in the list, so I did the second command. 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),3 0(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
4. That's where I'm at, and I would like to get this fixed while I have time this morning. Can anyone tell me what to do next?