How to Change your Username on Ubuntu 12.04

 

Introduction

User management is a critical part of maintaining a secure system. Ineffective user and privilege management often lead many systems into being compromised. Therefore, it is important that you understand how you can protect your server through simple and effective user account management techniques. 

Users are encouraged to make use of a tool by the name of sudo to carry out system administrative duties. Sudo allows an authorized user to temporarily elevate their privileges using their own password instead of having to know the password belonging to the root account. This simple yet effective methodology provides accountability for all user actions, and gives the administrator granular control over which actions a user can perform with said privileges.

In this tutorial, we explain how you can change your Username on your Ubuntu system. So follow the steps to change your username on your Ubuntu system.

Step Wise Changing Username on Ubuntu 12.04

Step 1 : Before beginning the procedure, Open the terminal by pressing CTRL + ALT + T from your keyboard. When the terminal opens, run the following command in the terminal to create new password for the root account on your Ubuntu system.

$ sudo passwd root

Step 2 : Next, run the following command in the terminal to unlock the root account on your Ubuntu system.

$ sudo passwd -u root

Step 3 : Next, Now log out and again login as the root user from the logon screen on your Ubuntu system.

Step 4 : Next, When you login again, Open the terminal and run the following command in the terminal to change your username on your Ubuntu system.

$ usermod -c "Real Name" -l new_name old_name

Step 5 : Finally, Lock the root account again and restart it by running the following command in the terminal on your Ubuntu system.

$ passwd -l root

That’s All and now enjoy the new username on your Ubuntu system.