Arch Linux

byjove01

Member

From: Alps, France

Registered: 2021-02-15

Posts: 223

[SOLVED] KDE doesn't start when I change my account's username

Hello.

Everything is in the title.
I applied what was said in this Arch Wiki page (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Users_and_groups#Change_a_user's_login_name_or_home_directory) and used the usermod command to definitely change my account username. But when I rebooted by computer, I realized KDE wasn't longer starting. I didn't even got my boot animation, the only thing I could get was my mouse cursor moving in a full black screen.
No way to access terminal, if not by using Ctrl+F* shortcuts.

I logged out and used the same command to get back my previous account name, my distro worked again. It doesn't look normal to me. How could I solve this problem and change my username?
Thanks in advance.

Last edited by byjove01 (2021-05-14 20:38:37)

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: [SOLVED] KDE doesn't start when I change my account's username

Hi, there's a few things that could be going on. If you want to debug the non-working login, I think all you need to check is the "/etc/passwd" file and the "/etc/group" file. Make sure the settings in there look correct (the username, home directory, the "group" file no longer has the old username...) and make sure the directories exist (the home directory that's listed in the "passwd" file) and that all of the files have the right ownership ("ls -la /home/newusername").

If you CAN'T resolve the issue, keep in mind that the problem is somewhere in your home directory / user configuration, and you do NOT need to re-install Arch Linux. As an extreme step, you can just create a new user with the username you want, copy your data files from the old account home directory into the new one, and once everything is setup how you like just get rid of the old user account / home directory.

...actually, I just realized, there MIGHT be something in a KDE file that keeps track of your username? Which would make KDE super unhappy if you changed it. Re-configuring KDE after logging in a fresh new user (as I mentioned above) may be your best bet.

Last edited by drcouzelis (2021-05-14 13:54:24)

byjove01

Member

From: Alps, France

Registered: 2021-02-15

Posts: 223

Re: [SOLVED] KDE doesn't start when I change my account's username

SOLVED!

I realized it was my auto-connect function that was still getting my old username as argument, so it was automatically connecting me to... nothing, since KDE was getting an error and so probably crashed.
Hope KDE Team will notice and solve this error one day because it's really problematic for people wanting to just change their account username.
Thanks a lot for your help!