Ubuntu Gnome problem removing a user

[rdb3]

Ubuntu 17.04 w Gnome.

I had a user that I removed using:


sudo rm -r /home/username

Now when I click on the topbar.... in the button at the far right..... it shows that the user is there.

Next I tried:


userdel -r username

but that tells me the 'user' does not exist.

I don't know what else to do to get rid of it .

Thank you in advance.

[TheFu]

You want deluser on debian-based systems. userdel is "low-level."

According to the manpage, you probably want:

$ sudo deluser --force --only-if-empty --remove-all-files {username}

Then you might want to run

$ sudo delgroup --only-if-empty {username}
to remove the automatically created per-userid group.

BTW, deleting the HOME without using these tools to do it isn't ideal.
Also, you cannot delete the userid you are currently using.

[deadflowr]

Open Settings and go to Users.
Click on the Unlock icon in the top corner and then select the user and then click on Remove User.

[rdb3]

Open Settings and go to Users.
Click on the Unlock icon in the top corner and then select the user and then click on Remove User.

Unlocked it but it doesn't let me 'Remove User'...... grayed out.

I think I screwed things up when I deleted home/username.

[rdb3]

You want deluser on debian-based systems. userdel is "low-level."

According to the manpage, you probably want:

$ sudo deluser --force --only-if-empty --remove-all-files {username}

Then you might want to run

$ sudo delgroup --only-if-empty {username}
to remove the automatically created per-userid group.

BTW, deleting the HOME without using these tools to do it isn't ideal.
Also, you cannot delete the userid you are currently using.

I just tried sudo deluser...... and got... the user 'username' does not exist.

Tried sudo delgroup .... and got... the group 'username' does not exist.

Yes, using rm HOME was a bad idea.

[deadflowr]

Then try recreating the directory

sudo mkdir /home/username
sudo chown username:username /home/username
change username to the user's name.

[rdb3]

Then try recreating the directory

sudo mkdir /home/username
sudo chown username:username /home/username
change username to the user's name.

Not working.... getting invalid user.

I think something got corrupted beyond fixable here.
The good thing is that I can still get into the system and everything else seems to be working fine.
At some point in time I may reinstall Ubuntu 17 w Gnome. It's currently installed alongside Windows 7.
How should I re-install (alongside W 7) so that the new install is completely clean without anything carried over from this current installation?