Need to change sign on and password

[Meteor]

I have just had some servicing done to my computer and LMDE (Xfce) installed in place of Julia. However, Xfce was installed by the shop doing the service and they, of course, set their "standard" sign on and password. I've looked through the menus of Xfce and haven't found anyway to change the sign on/password to what I want to use.

I've used the search function for the forum but am obviously not phrasing it correctly as I come up with a whole lot of non-specific responses.

I'm sure it's right in front of me but I haven't seen it. How do I do change the sign on name and password?

Thanks,
Meteor

[Oscar799]

Moved here from the main forum

[xenopeek]

Go to Menu > System > Users and Groups. You can change the password of the account here. You can also change the display name of the user the shop installed, though on the filesystem the username will remain the same. Alternatively, you can create a new user here.

[Meteor]

I did go through the "menu, system, users & groups", deleted the shop's name and password and put in mine as suggested by xenopeek. I can now sign on and work from the menus and here in Firefox and Thunderbird, etc. with no problem. However, if I want to use the Terminal screen, it still shows the shop's "name" as the user and will not accept my password nor the one assigned by the shop (since I deleted "it"). This now leaves me without /root access when needed. Since there are 417 upgrades that I should be installing, I seem to be spinning in no-man's-land...

Does this mean that I should re-install LMDE/Xfce totally so I can have my "normal" sign in?

Is there a way to get rid of all occurrences of the name the shop assigned and work with my sign on as a normal user and as an administrator without reinstalling?

I can reinstall (as I do not like the way the hard drive was formatted by the shop) as everythng except /root access seems to be working.

Meteor

[xenopeek]

I'm not completely clear if you added a new user, or only edited the existing the user. The latter should allow you to work as administrator normally, though, yes, you keep the old username on the terminal. The former option would indeed create a user without needed privileges to become root.

If the issue is you have a newly created user, and can not become root, you need to make a few changes. If you really can do any root actions anymore, you need to boot into single user mode. First, hold shift during boot to get to the GRUB boot menu. Then select the second option "recovery mode". In the text mode menu that appears, scroll down till you get to "drop to root console" and select that. You are now logged into a root terminal, and can perform all actions without needing to enter a password. So be careful and check your commands before pressing enter! You won't be warned if you for example give a command in a wrong directory, and this would delete critical system files...

Now that you are root, you just need to add the groups that the old user had access on, to the new user. It is a complex command, but this does it in one step:

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usermod --append --groups $(grep :olduser /etc/group | sed 's/:.*//' | tr '\n' ',' | sed 's/,$//') newuser

If this command is too scary, do it in steps. First, list all the groups the old user had access too:

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grep :olduser /etc/group | sed 's/:.*//'

Then add these groups manually, one by one (just replace GROUP by the first groupname in the previous list, and repeat the command for each groupname in the list):

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usermod --append --groups GROUP newuser

Just put in the right usernames for olduser and newuser, and the groups that the olduser had access to (the user created at the shop) will be added to the newuser (the one you created).

Now you can reboot (type: reboot), and you will be able to use sudo and do things like the update manager with your new user. Be clear that you need your new user's password to perform these actions! The password dialog asks for your password, so use your new user's password.

[Meteor]

Thank you Vincent for your fine suggestion. I am the only user but did not install LMDE/Xfce. The installation was made by a service technician at the computer repair shop from a LiveDVD provided by me. The computer was in for a check-up as there were "situations" unrelated to LMDE or to "Julia" who was running. My CD/DVD burner was causing a few situations. It turned out to be an inferior brand of DVDs not the drive. I tried to check the "number" from the ISO (don't recall the name of this checksum). There is one published on the Mint website. The DVD has a long list of different numbers, none of which matched the published one.

The technician installed LMDE/Xfce (not a Linux user...). As it required a sign in and password, he put in "laptop" as the user and "password" as the password. When I asked how to change this on this forum, it was suggested to delete "laptop" and add myself with my password. I've done that. "Laptop" still shows as the "root" user...

I want to get rid of "laptop" permanently. I want to send it out into cyberspace and let it spend it's remaining eons floating around far away from my computer. However, it won't leave. I am asked to enter it's password to gain root access. I enter "password" in a terminal and nothing happens. Remember, I deleted the user "laptop" and it's password left with it.

I've had second thoughts about the Debian version and will probably put "Isadora" on as she will be around for another year and half or so and I know she should install without any fuss. There will be a thousand or so upgrades/changes to download, however...

Thank you for your information. I'm sure it may be assistance to another user who has a sign on situation, but I'll take the easy way, as long as Isadora is in a good mood on this cold, dark, windy morning in Alberta, Canada, eh...

Meteor