1

Just installed Ubuntu on Windows 10, I am a total beginner and new to this and I did see the prompt to provide my username, but by the time I found out what my username was (which had to match Windows apparently), that prompt was gone and never came back. pwd returns '/root', and whoami returns 'root'. Help - I don't even know how to google these things! :)

Anna
  • 111
  • 1
  • 4

1 Answers1

1

Generalizing the answer:

  1. Firstly, check if you have a user created for yourself, For that, check

    passwd username

    If the command says user doesn't exist. You would have to create a new user.

  2. To create a new user

    adduser username

  3. Once you have the user created and password setup, to change to a different user, type su followed by a space and your username. Type the password when prompted.

  4. Also check if you have a shell assigned to your username. Refer this question

Simon Sudler
  • 3,931
  • 3
  • 21
  • 34
A S
  • 11
  • 5
  • Thanks, but that's not exaclt my question. I don't even HAVE a username or if I do I don't know what it is. – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 03:19
  • Hi Anna, try out instructions mentioned here to create a new user: – A S Oct 14 '19 at 03:21
  • Ok so i tried that with firstnamelastname, seemed to work but says there is no password entry and it prompts me for a new password, but when I type the cursor doesn't react/move... – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 03:21
  • https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/user-add.html.en – A S Oct 14 '19 at 03:21
  • The entered password is invisible on the prompt. Type your password and press enter. – A S Oct 14 '19 at 03:23
  • Great! That seemed to work. But I still don't have a directory.. I am still in root and I am going through the tutorial which suggests that something like mark@linux-desptop: ~$ appears in the prompt, but for me it is root@DESKTOP-CDXXXXX:/# (XX being my pc name) – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 03:26
  • do su - username – A S Oct 14 '19 at 03:27
  • although I got the confimration that password updated successfully, when i do su - username, I get 'No passwd entry for user 'myusername' :( – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 03:38
  • Try out the steps here: https://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/12/how-to-change-password-on-ubuntu/ – A S Oct 14 '19 at 03:41
  • That's what I did and the thing is that it seems I am not 'logged in' or the command line ramesh@ramesh-desktop:~$ passwd (in that example) is still the root@DESKTOP one for me. In Windows 10 the GUI steps don't work either... sorry about this! – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 03:47
  • Okay, so, update your question with all the screenshots for the screens so that I can get a sense of what's happening. I'll help you out, don't worry! – A S Oct 14 '19 at 03:56
  • just did. thank you again! – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 04:00
  • sudo passwd annamartinez – A S Oct 14 '19 at 04:27
  • While you did passwd, you were actually changing the root password. Unless you specifically mentioned which user, the logged in user password gets updated. – A S Oct 14 '19 at 04:29
  • "passwd: user 'annamartinez' does not exist" .. whch is what I suspected! – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 04:29
  • Okay. The user wasn't created. You can now create one. Do adduser annamartinez, set the password, for user information prompt fill the details or leave it blank. Then do: usermod -aG sudo annamartinez. Then login as you, su - annamartinez – A S Oct 14 '19 at 04:34
  • :) hooray! Thank you that worked! Btw, since I changed the root password - is that a problem? And what was the default one? – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 04:38
  • and when closing the terminal and reopening? is there a way to always by default open it as myself in my own directory? – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 04:39
  • You might have to go to the settings and re-login as you. As long as you remember the password you set for the previous passwd commands you should be all set. – A S Oct 14 '19 at 05:00
  • Also check this similar question: https://askubuntu.com/questions/217912/login-as-non-root-user-in-terminal, check if you have a shell assigned for your username. – A S Oct 14 '19 at 05:03
  • thank you.. again! will have a read. I have actually been looking for settings, but cannot find them. All i can change are graphics and stuff like that under properties.... – Anna Oct 14 '19 at 05:51