Arch Linux

archdaniel

Member

Registered: 2025-08-06

Posts: 2

How to change username in Arch Linux

I recently moved to Arch Linux and I'm not that good in Terminal (I know the 'basic') so I dunno how can I change my username... I use KDE Plasma, I opened 'System Settings' and I went to 'User', put the username I want and it showed an error... I really don't think that the way to change my username is in my DE Settings...
If someone could help me, I'm gonna be glad, thank you everyone!!

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 13,469

Website

Re: How to change username in Arch Linux

Use 'usermod -l', however, note the caveat in the man page: https://man.archlinux.org/man/core/shad … en#CAVEATS

Last edited by WorMzy (2025-08-06 21:01:02)

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archdaniel

Member

Registered: 2025-08-06

Posts: 2

Re: How to change username in Arch Linux

Use 'usermod -l', however, note the caveat in the wan page: https://man.archlinux.org/man/core/shad … en#CAVEATS

Thanks dude!! I could do that on TTY, thank you!

sipak

Member

Registered: 2019-02-03

Posts: 50

Re: How to change username in Arch Linux

Yes, you can use the KDE module. When you say it gave you "an error", what error? Always mention thar explicitly, because "an error" can be anything.

Please note that you have a user, not a username. Meaning, there is a /home/john not a /home/user1=john. So, if you change your "username" to johnny, your directory will continue to be /home/john.

Alternatively, you could just create a new user. From the settings menu, or from terminal: useradd -mU johnny ; passwd johnny

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