Problem with change from "su" to "user" in Slack 14.0
 

Installing Slack 14.0 over 13.37,got confused during process by new choice to download user/suser during installation setup.I ended up with bootup as su. I want to be able to bootup with my old username as before
'adduser' won't work as the name is already in the system. I want to start Slack 14.0 as 'user' as with 13.37 and retain my old username. what buttons must I push?

If I'm understanding what you did properly, it seems you removed your user from /etc/passwd, so you will have to re-add the user. I don't see how "adduser" wouldn't work.

If you're prepared to do open-heart surgery, you can, as 'root', simply edit /etc/passwd and change the user name directly. Don't do this unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing. And use a proper text file editor like 'vi', 'emacs' or 'nano'. You'll probably muck up the file format if you use a word processor (libreoffice, koffice etc).

I may be missing something here, but if the name is already in the system, that suggests a couple of possibilities:
1. the UID associated with the name is not the same in 14.0 and 13.37, requiring an edit of /etc/passwd
2. the UID is ok but password is messed up, requiring a resetting of the password

Using 'vipw' will take some of the risk out of the open heart surgery.

Lyle.

Hi Tommy, the system won't allow me to use "adduser" because that implies that I want to "add" an existing username. It seems that I have to drag it in some other way OR just modify the boot/start sequence to boot as "user"; either way would do.

So if your username still exists, why can't you log in then?
Can you log in as root ?
terminal or XDM/KDM ?

If you need to change a password or UID, GID or the homedir for an existing user , try


see man usermod