GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 316699
it doesn't let you change your name and it should
Last modified: 2010-11-21 03:30:31 UTC
This bug has been opened here: https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=14440 "I noticed that in Breezy there's a new About Me control applet, but there are some issues: - it doesn't let you change your name and it should since it lets you fill in a lot of other information - when allowed to fill the name, this should also include changing GECOS information ..."
Usually you can only change your name if you are root (this is to prevent people randomly changing their name on multi user systems where that name may be important I think). This is noted in man chfn and is controlled by /etc/login.defs .
Here is a patch which we use in Fedora to make the about me capplet save gecos information back to /etc/passwd. It also allows to edit the user name. Note that the patch is not directly applicable, since it relies on the Red Hat-specific usermode infrastructure to actually save the gecos information (it spawns /usr/bin/userinfo), but at least it shows my solution for editing the username with the help of a button and an EelEditableLabel.
Created attachment 54833 [details] [review] the patch
Diego, could you review the patch please?
Rodrigo, this patch is redhat specific as Matthias said. Matthias also proposed a patch to fix some issues with the password dialog, but once again it is based on some functionality redhat specific. As i said in bug 321567: I have discovered that Debian has the userpassword/userinfo family of programs in the usermode package. If someone can check if SuSE and/or Madriva ship those program i'm willing to review the patches. But currently i don't have time for anything else, as my mater thesis is taking up all my time.
What about if the About Me capplet checks for the userinfo program, and only enables editing if it is present?
The new user-accounts dialogue allows you to do that, and will change the GECOS information. $ cat /etc/passwd| grep testuser testuser:x:501:501:Test User:/home/testuser:/bin/bash # Change name in the user-accounts panel $ cat /etc/passwd| grep testuser testuser:x:501:501:Test User, Jr.:/home/testuser:/bin/bash
*** Bug 625432 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***